BL 

8280 
T4 


SHINTO  CULT 


i 


UC-NRLF 


31E 


MILTON  &  TERRY 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE  SHINTO  CULT 


A  CHRISTIAN  STUDY 


OF 


THE  ANCIENT  RELIGION  OF  JAPAN 


BY 


MILTON  S.  TERRY,  D.  D. 

Lecturer  on  Comparative  Religion  in 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute. 


CINCINNATI:    JENNINGS   AND   GRAHAM 
NEW    YORK:    EATON    AND    MAINS 


Copyright,  1910, 
By  Jennings  and  Graham. 


NOTE. 

The  following  pages  are  the  substance  of  a 
course  of  lectures  on  the  old  Shinto  cult  which 
the  author  has  been  giving  for  a  number  of  years 
to  his  classes  in  Comparative  Religion.  They  are 
here  condensed  and  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  a 
little  manual  which,  it  is  believed,  may  interest 
many  readers,  and  bring  together  within  a  small 
space  information  gathered  from  many  sources  not 
easily  accessible  to  ordinary  students.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  hoped  that  this  little  volume  may  serve 
to  suggest  some  valuable  hints  to  the  Christian 
missionary  who  is  to  come  face  to  face  with  the 
Japanese  people  in  their  "beautiful  land  of  the 
reed  plains  and  the  fresh  ears  of  rice."  It  is 
possible  that  some  portions,  if  not  every  jot  and 
tittle,  of  this  ancient  cult  mav,  like  the  law  and 

9  «/    s 

the  prophets  of  Israel,  find  a  glorious  fulfillment 
in  the  pure  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  prin- 
cipal authorities  relied  on  in  the  preparation  of 
this  essay  are  named  in  the  Select  Bibliography 
given  at  the  end. 

3 


CONTENTS. 


1.  THE  COUNTRY 7 

2.  Is  SHINTO  A  RELIGION? 10 

3.  ORIGIN  AND   RELATIVE  AGE  OF   THE 

PEOPLE 12 

4.  MEANING  OF  THE  TERM  SHINTO 14 

5.  SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION 15 

6.  JAPANESE   COSMOGONY   AND    MYTHOL- 

OGY    19 

7.  THE  JAPANESE  A  SELF-CENTERED  PEO- 

PLE    29 

8.  ESSENCE  OF  THE  SHINTO  CULT 30 

9.  THE  GREAT  SANCTUARIES 31 

10.  FIVE    NOTEWORTHY    OBJECTS    CON- 

NECTED WITH  THE  WORSHIP 34 

11.  THE  ANCESTOR  WORSHIP 37 

12.  ELEMENTS  OF  ANIMISM 41 

13.  THE  DOMESTIC  CULT 43 

14.  THE  COMMUNAL  CULT 45 

15.  THE  NATIONAL  CULT 49 

5 


6  CONTENTS. 

16.  THE  HABYEST  SERVICE 52 

17.  THE  GREAT  PURIFICATION 54 

18.  OTHER  RITUAL  SERVICES 60 

19.  INFLUENCE  OF   CHINA   ON   JAPANESE 

THOUGHT 63 

20.  INFLUENCE  OF  BUDDHISM 64 

21.  REVIVAL  OF  PURE  SHINTO 68 

22.  ESOTERIC  SHINTO 70 

23.  MINGLING  OF  SHINTO,  CONFUCIANISM, 

AND  BUDDHISM 71 

24.  ROMAN  CATHOLICISM  IN  JAPAN 73 

25.  ALLEGED   PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  INDIF- 

FERENCE    74 

26.  CONCLUDING  OBSERVATIONS 78 


THE  SHINTO  CULT. 


1.  The  Country.  In  taking  np  the  study 
of  a  religion  which  has  never  extended  beyond 
the  limits  of  an  ea>ilv  defined  territory,  we  mav 

^^___^.^^^^M^^P'^P"^1'*    MHVMMHMMMMOBMMi^^H  \J     S  \J 

appropriately  first  of  all  take  a  hasty  glance 
at  the  geographical  outlines  of  the  system  we 
call  Shinto,  the  primitive  faith  of  the  people 
of  Japan.  To  appreciate  the  geographical  posi- 
tion of  Japan,  one  needs  to  have  before  him  a 
map  of  the  world.  He  may  then  see  at  a  glance 
how  remarkably  the  three  thousand  islands  of 
that  Empire  stretch  for  some  twenty- five  hun- 
dred miles  along  the  coast  of  Asia,  from  Kam- 
chatka on  the  north  to  the  island  of  Formosa  on 
the  south,  which  island  is  crossed  by  the  tropic 
of  Cancer.  It  may  be  called  the  longest  and  the 
narrowest  miiT^ry  irL_thn  mnnlrl  It  looks  like  an 
immense  sea-serpent,  with  its  northern  tail  twist- 

7 


8  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

ing  toward  the  Aleutian  Islands,  which  our  Gov- 
ernment acquired  from  Russia  in  1867,  and  its 
southern  head  pointing  toward  the  Philippine 
Islands,  which  we  acquired  from  Spain  in  recent 
years.  It  seems  to  guard  the  whole  eastern  coast 
of  Asia,  and  along  with  China,  on  the  mainland, 

x  O  ' 

is  suspected  and  feared  by  some  European  diplo- 
mats as  embodying  some  sort  of  a  "Yellow  Peril/' 
It  may  be  that  its  noteworthy  contiguity  to  our 
Alaskan  possessions  at  one  extremity  and  our 
Philippine  wards  at  the  other  bodes  some  sort 
of  peril  to  any  Western  nation  that  may  hereafter 
presume  to  enlarge  its  dominions  in  the  Orient 

by  force  of  arms. 

Attention  has  often  been  called  to  the  fact  that 
the  British  Isles,  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  just  off 
the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe,  occupy  a  cor- 
responding geographical  relation  to  the  Western 
world.  The  islands  themselves  are  comparatively 
small,  but  their  measuring  line  has  gone  out  into 
all  the  earth,  and  their  civilization  is  dominating 
the  world.  Asia,  on  the  east  of  the  Eastern  hemi- 
sphere, is  a  land  of  innumerable  population; 
Europe,  on  the  west,  is  a  land  of  new  ideas  and 


THE  ISLAND  EMPIRE.  9 

of  hopeful  progress.  The  United  States,  resting 
her  Atlantean  shoulder  on  the  island-empire  of 
Europe,  and  her  Pacific  shoulder  on  the  island- 
empire  of  the  Orient,  may  be,  in  the  order  of  God, 
a  mighty  mediator,  possessed  both  of  a  great  popu- 
lation and  of  new  and  commanding  ideas,  and 
destined  to  bring  about  the  universal  peace,  the 
sound  knowledge,  and  the  highest  prosperity  of 
the  world. 

We  are  told  that  Japan  is  a  country  of  diversi- 
fiedTbeauty.  Compassed  round  about  with  the  vast 
ocean,  yet  not  far  from  the  Asiatic  mainland ;  sup- 
plied also  with  a  wonderful  inland  sea,  and  with 
lakes  and  rivers  and  fountains  of  waters ;  a  land 

s 

of  mountains,  and  valleys,  and  broad  meadows, 
and  all  manner  of  trees  and  shrubs  and  fruits  and 
flowers,  and  charming  landscapes,  and  all  varieties 
of  climate;  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  people  and 
their  poets  have  called  this  group  of  islands  "the 
sun's  nest,"  "the  country  of  the  sun-goddess,"  "the 
region  between  heaven  and  earth/'  "'islands  of  the 


congealed  drop,"  "the  grand  land  of  the  eight 
isles,"  "central  land  of  reed-plains,"  ''land  of  the 
ears  of  fresh  rice,"  "land  of  a  thousand  autumns/' 


10  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

and  other  similar  names  indicative  of  manifold 
excellence.1 

This  island-empire  of  the  Orient  is  the  home 
of  the  religious  cult  called  "Shinto,"  a  religion 
which  has  never  traveled  nor  sought  to  propagate 
itself  beyond  the  dominions  of  Japan.  It  has 
never  put  itself  in  a  hostile  attitude  toward  any 
other  form  of  religion,  either  at  home  or  abroad., 
except  when  a  foreign  cult  has  entered  its  ancient 


home  and  sought  to  meddle  with  affairs  of  State 

.,-•  .  „,:-.,-    *.,»..-  MBM  --^ 


or  to  interfere  with  loyalty  to  the  Emperor. 

2.  Is  Shinto  a  Religion?  At  a  meeting 
of  the  Society  of  Science,  held  at  Tokyo  in 
1890,  the  president  o|  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sity expressed  the  opinion  that  Shinto  should 
not  be  regarded  as  a  religion.  He  believed 
it  to  be  an  essential  element  in  the  existing  na- 
tional thought  and  feeling  of  Japan,  but  destitute 
of  the  essential  qualities  of  a  strictly  religious 

•^MMMBMOIV'>WWa0qiWMMfm«i^nnwaM*VBM*MWM»«B^MK«ak 

cult.     Others  have  expressed  a  similar  opinion; 

lrThe  Ko-ji-ki  (section  XXX)  has  this  remarkable  combina- 
tion :  '  'The  luxuriant-reed-plains-land-of-fresh-rice-ears-of-a- 
thousand-autumns-of-long-five-hundred-autumns."  The  Ritual 
of  the  Great  Purification  and  other  rituals  call  Japan  "the 
luxuriant  reed-plain  region  of  fresh  young  spikes."  The 
word  "spikes"  here  is  a  synonym  for  ears  of  rice. 


SHINTO  A  RELIGION.  11 

but  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  this  judgment 
arises  from  an  incorrect  concept  of  religion,  and 
a  consequent  defective  definition  of  the  same.  A 
similar  denial  has  been  made  of  the  religious  char- 
acter of  other  cults  and  systems.  Taoism,  Con- 
fucianism, and  even  Buddhism  have  been  said  to 
lack  the  elements  essential  to  a  real  religion.  But 
if  these  systems  do  not  constitute  a  religion-  for 
the  peoples  who  accept  them,  they  are  in  every 
case  their  substitute  for  religion.  Any  religion 
or  any  form  of  religion  may  so  involve  its  thought 
and  its  practices  with  philosophical  speculation, 
or  with  social  customs,  or  with  the  political  man- 
agement of  the  State,  as  to  have  the  appearance 
of  a  philosophical  or  a  political  system,  rather  than 
a  form  of  religion.  But,  however  it  may,  in  such 
ways,  ignore  the  religious  ideas  and  practices  of 
other  systems,  if  there  be  no  other  religious  cult 
among  the  people,  the  philosophy,  the  ethical 
policy  and  the  customs,  which  make  up  this  im- 
portant element  of  the  civilization  and  the  national 
life,  are  as  truly  tantamount  to  a  religious  cult 
as  any  form  of  faith  and  practice  which  all  men 
agree  to  call  religion. 


12  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

3.     Origin  and  Relative  Age  of  the  People. 

The  main  body  of  the  Japanese  people  are  be- 
lieved to  have  migrated  in  old  times  from  the 


northern  central  part  of  Asia,  and  to  have  worked 
their  way  eastward  into  Korea,  and  thence  into 
the  islands  of  Japan.  They  expelled  or  subjugated 
the  aborigines  of  the  country,  and  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  great  islands  and  the  inland  and 
surrounding  seas.  But  their  origin  and  early  his- 
tory are  involved  in  dense  obscurity.  They  doubt- 
less brought  with  them  from  their  earlier  dwell- 
ings in  Asia  various  myths,  legends,  and  tradi- 
tions, and  these  grew  and  strengthened  amid  the 
simple  habits  of  life  which  they  adopted  in  their 
new  island-world.  According  to  a  writer1  in  the 
Westminster  Review  of  July,  1878,  Japan  is  yet, 
in  more  senses  than  one,  a  young  country.  Their 
language  and  their  institutions  "show  us  a  people 
still  in  a  very  early  stage  of  development."  W.  G-. 
Aston  holds  that  the  earliest  date  of  accepted 
Japanese  chronology  is  A.  D.  461,  and  he  says  that 
Japanese  history,  properly  so  called,,  can  not  be 
said  to  exist  previous  to  A.  D.  500.  He  regards 

1Understood  to  be  Sir  Ernest  Satow. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  JAPANESE.          13 

Korean  history  more  trustworthy  than  that  of 
Japan  previous  to  that  date.1  According  to  Satow, 
"everything  points  to  the  descent  of  the  Japanese 
people  in  great  part  from  a  race  of  Turanian 
origin,  who  crossed  over  from  the  continent  by 
way  of  the  islands  Tsushima  and  Iki,  which  form 
the  natural  stepping-stones  from  Korea  to  Japan. - 
But  the  last  twenty-five  years  have  witnessed 
a  most  remarkable  advance  in  the  use  of  modern 
inventions,  and  more  than  any  other  nation  of 
the  far  East  have  the  Japanese  displayed  both 
a  willingness  and  an  ambition  to  improve  their 
condition  by  means  of  the  ideas  and  usages  of 
Western  civilization.  The  war  with  China  in 
189-i,  and  that  with  Russia  in  1904-1905,  displayed 
a  wisdom,  tact,  and  energy  which  were  a  great 
surprise  to  the  world.  The  self-poise,  the  gen- 
erosity, the  far-sighted  statesmanship  exhibited  in 
her  concluding  terms  of  peace  with  her  haughty 
but  defeated  enemy,  have  commanded  universal  ad- 
miration. These  facts  make  the  study  of  this 
people's  ancient  religious  cult,  which  is  still  a 

^'Transactions    of    the    Asiatic    Society    of    Japan,"    vol. 
xvi,  part  I,  page  73. 

"Westminster   Review,   July,    1878,   p.    18. 


14  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

powerful  element  in  the  popular  life,  a  matter  of 
no  little  interest  at  the  present  time.1 

4.  Meaning  of  the  Word  Shinto.  The  word 
Shinto  means  the  "way  of  the  gods."  It  came 
into  use  when  Buddhism  was  introduced  into 
Japan,  and  designates  the  old,  ancestral  wor- 
ship as  a  way  of  the  gods  distinct  from  the  way 
of  the  Buddhists,  or  of  any  other  rival  way  of 
religious  life.  The  Japanese  name  is  Kami  noL 
•miclii.  In  its  essential  elements  it  is  a  com- 
mingling  of  Animism  and  ancestor-worship.  Not 

^ta^#i«j»**<**r'*'**?*»«i*"*»**^jjtfi**M^^ 

only  are  the  spirits  of  departed  ancestors  reckoned 
among  the  gods,  but  there  are  innumerable  deities 
of  other  kind  and  character.  The  mountains  and 
valleys,  the  rivers  and  the  seas,  the  trees,  the  wind, 
the  thunder,  the  fire,  all  moving  things  and  objects 

*It  may  not  be  improper  to  suggest  that  some  of  the 
notions  of  the  Western  peoples  as  to  the  backwardness  of 
Japan  in  the  past,  and  the  relative  stage  of  civilization  reached 
generations  ago  in  the  island  empire  may  be  very  ludicrous 
to  the  mind  of  a  self-respecting,  thoughtful  son  of  Japan. 
The  Mikado's  minister  at  Paris  is  reported  to  have  said: 
'  'We  have  for  many  generations  sent  to  Europe  exquisite 
lacquer  work,  delicately  carved  figures,  beautiful  embroidery, 
and  many  other  things  which  show  our  artistic  ability  and 
accomplishments,  but  the  Europeans  said  we  were  uncivilized. 
We  have  recently  killed  some  70,000  Russians,  and  now  every 
European  nation  is  wondering  at  the  high  civilization  we 
have  at  last  attained  1" 


THE  KO-JI-KI.  15 

of  sen?e  are  supposed  to  have  each  a  deity  williin. 
And  these  deities  seem  for  the  most  part  to  have 
been  regarded  as  beneficent  poweTs1  anfl  tliftp  wm'- 
ship  is  of  a  joy01™  kjprL 

5.  Sources  of  Information.  The  sources  of 
our  knowledge  of  this  ancient  cult  are  quite 
numerous,  but  not  as  accessible  to  English  and 
American  students  as  is  desirable.  The  oldest 


existing  monument  of  Japanese  literature  is 
known  as  the  k''K<>-ji-ki/'  the  text  of  which 
would  make  a  book  about  the  size  of  our  four 
(Jnspels.  It  contains  180  short  sections  or  chap- 
ters. The  word  Ko-ji-l'i  means  a  "liccord  of  An- 
cient Matters^  and  appropriately  designates  this 
oldest  known  record  of  the  mythology,  history,  and 
customs  of  the  people  of  Japan.  It  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  sacred  scripture  of  the  Shinto  cult 
which  we  possess.  It  has  been  translated  into 
English,  and  supplied  with  a  learned  introduction 
and  many  explanatory  notes  by  Basil  H.  Chamber- 
lain,1 a  distinguished  scholar,  who  has  made  the 


'It  is  published  as  a  Supplement  to  vol.  x  of  the  "Trans- 
actions of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  pp.  Ixxv  and  369. 
Yokohama,  1883. 


16  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

Japanese  language,  literature,  and  archaeology  a 
subject  of  extensive  and  minute  research. 

Another  and  much  larger  work,   comprising 

, 

thirty  books,  and  containing  a  record  of  much  of 
the  same  mythology  and  history  as  the  Ko-ji-ki,  is 
called  the  Njlwjigi^.  or  "Chronicles  of  Japan."1 
It  is  a  composite  of  various  elements  derived  from 
numerous  different  sources,  and  while  it  reports  in 
substance  the  myths  and  stories  of  the  gods  as 
they  are  found  in  the  Ko-ji-'ki,  it  makes  no  mention 
of  that  older  work  and  omits  some  things  which 
the  older  work  records.  It  gives,  however,  a  num- 
ber and  variety  of  reports  of  the  myths  and  tra- 
ditions, informing  us  how,  in  one  ancient  writing, 
it  is  so  and  so  recorded;  in  another  writing,  it  is 
somewhat  differently  told.  This  feature  enhances 
its  value  for  purposes  of  comparison  among  the 
varying  traditions. 

This  later  production  lacks  the  simplicity  and 
originality  of  the  Ko-ji-ki,  and  bears  abundant  evi- 
dence of  the  Chinese  influences  under  which  it 


JThere  is  an  English  translation  of  the  Nihongi,  by 
W.  G.  Aston:  2  vols.  London,  1896.  It  is  published  as  8 
Supplement  to  "Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Japan 
Society,  London." 


THE  NIHONGI.  17 

was  composed.  It  is  written  for  the  most  part 
in  Chinese,  and  exhibits  numerous  examples  of  the 
learning  and  philosophical  cast  of  thought  peculiar 
to  certain  well-known  Chinese  writings.  As  a  spec- 
imen of  this  rationalistic  type  of  construing  the 
ancient  myths  of  creation,  we  here  cite  the  o 
sentences  from  the  first  book  of  the  Sil 

"Of  old,  Heaven  and  Earth  were  not  yet  sepa- 
rated, and  the  In  and  Yo  [or  Yin  and  Yang, 
female  and  male  principles]  not  yet  divided.  They 
formed  a  chaotic  mass,  like  an  egg,  which  was  of 
obscurely  defined  limits  and  contained  germs.  The 
purer  and  clearer  part  was  thinly  drawn  out  and 
formed  Heaven,  while  the  heavier  and  grosser 
element  settled  down  and  became  Earth.  The 
finer  element  easily  became  a  united  body,  but  the 
consolidation  of  the  heavy  and  gross  element  was 
accomplished  with  difficulty.  Heaven  was  there- 
fore formed  first,  and  Earth  was  established  sub- 
sequently. Thereafter  Divine  Beings  were  pro- 
duced between  them.  Hence  it  is  said  that  when 
the  world  began  to  be  created,  the  soil,  of  which 
lands  were  composed,  floated  about  in  a  manner 
which  might  be  compared  to  the  floating  of  a  fish 


18  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

sporting  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  At  this  time 
a  certain  thing  was  produced  between  Heaven  and 
Earth.  It  was  in  form  like  a  reed-shoot.  Now 
this  became  transformed  into  a  god,  and  was  called 
Kunirtoko-taclii  no  Mikoto  ["Land-eternal-stand- 
of-august  thing"].  Next  there  was  Kuni-no-sa- 
tsuclii  ["land-of -right-soil"],  and  next,  Toyo- 
kumu-nu  ["rich-form-plain"] — in  all,  three  dei- 
ties. These  were  pure  males,  spontaneously  de- 
veloped by  the  operation  of  the  principle  of 
Heaven"  [the  Yo,  male  principle]. 

The  Ko-ji-ki  was  written  about  713  A.  D.,  and 
the  Nihongi  in  720  A.  D.,  and  they  are  both  re- 
markable for  the  naive  and  peculiar  manner  in 
which  they  unite  together  in  their  narratives  mat- 
ters of  traditional  mythology  and  of  history  with- 
out apparent  consciousness  of  any  noteworthy  dif- 
ferences between  the  two.  Besides  these  remarkable 
books  there  is  a  Code  of  ceremonial  laws,  in  fifty 
volumes,  known  as  the  Yengisliiki,  which  was  pub- 
lished A.  D.  927.  It  includes  a  large  number  of 
ancient  Japanese  rituals,  called  Norito,  of  which 
several  have  been  translated  into  English  and  pro- 
vided with  a  commentary  and  learned  notes  by 


THE  MANYOSHU.  19 

• 

Ernest  Satow  and  Karl  Florenz.1  There  is  also 
an  interesting  collection  of  ancient  poems,  called 
the  Manyosliu,  "Collection  of  Myriad  Leaves/' 
which  furnishes  numerous  pictures  of  the  life  of 
the  early  Japanese,  both  before  and  after  the  time 
of  the  compilation  of  the  Ko-ji-ki  and  the  Nihonyi. 
There  are  also  the  voluminous  writings  of  the  three 
famous  Shinto  scholars,  Mabuchi,  Motowori,  and 
Hirata,  who  flourished  between  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  and  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  effected  an  intellectual  revolution  and 
a  remarkable  revival  of  the  Shinto  cult.2 

6.  Japanese  Cosmogony  and  Mythology.  Our 
study  of  Shinto  may  well  begin  by  a  brief  notice 
of  Japanese  cosmogony  as  presented  at  the  jerj 
beginning  of  the  Ko-ji-Jii: 

"I,  Yasumaro,  say:    Xow  when  chaos  had  be- 

JThese  appear  in  vols.  vii,  ix,  and  xxvii  of  the  "Transac- 
tions of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan."  Over  thirty-five  vol- 
umes of  these  Transactions  have  appeared,  and  they  are  an 
invaluable  repository  of  information  on  the  history,  customs, 
religion,  and  literature  of  Japan.  Other  journals  of  like 
value  are  the  "Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Japan 
Society  of  London"  and  the  "Deutsche  Gesellschaft  fiir  Xatur- 
und  VSlkerkuude  Ostnsiens  in  Tokio." 

2Sketches  of  these  men  and  numerous  extracts  from  their 
works  may  be  found  in  Satow's  essay  on  "The  Revival  of 
Pure  Shin-tau,"  published  as  Appendix  of  vol.  iii  of  the 
"Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan." 


20  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 


gun  to  condense,  but  force  and  form  were  not 

> 
yet  manifest,  and  there  was  naught  named,  naught 

done,  who  could  know  its  shape?     Nevertheless 

m 

Heaven  and  Earth  first  parted,  and  the  Three 
Deities  performed  the  commencement  of  creation; 

the  Passive  and  Active  Essences  then  developed, 
I 

and  the  Two  Spirits  became  the  ancestors  of  all 
things.  Therefore  did  he  [Izanagi]  enter  ob- 
scurity and  emerge  into  light,  and  the  Sun  and 
Moon  were  revealed  by  the  washing  of  his  eyes; 
he  floated  on  and  plunged  into  the  sea-water,  and 
heavenly  and  earthly  Deities  appeared  through  the 
ablutions  of  his  person.  So  in  the  dimness  of  the 
great  beginning,  we,  by  relying  on  the  original 
teaching,  learn  the  time  of  the  conception  of  the 
earth  and  of  the  birth  of  islands;  in  the  remote- 
ness of  the  original  beginning,  we  by  trusting  the 
former  sages,  perceive  the  era  of  the  genesis  of 
Deities  and  of  the  establishment  of  men." 

This  brief  fragment  from  the  compiler's 
"Preface"  furnishes  a  condensed  outline  of  what 
we  read  in  the  first  part  of  the  Ko-ji-~k.i,  and  it 
indicates  the  peculiar  cosmogony  of  the  Japanese 
mythology.  The  early  sections  of  the  book  record 


JAPANESE   MYTHOLOGY.  21 

the  names  of  the  first  deities,  who  are  said  to  have 
been  "born  alone,  and  hid  their  persons;"  which 
seems  to  mean  that  they  came  into  being  in  some 
exceptional  way,  and  then  disappeared.  Then  fol- 
lowed what  are  termed  "the  Seven  Divine  Genera- 
tions," among  which  we  find  such  names  as  "the 
Earthly  -  eternally  -  standing  -  Deity,"  "the  Mud- 
Earth-Lord,  and  his  younger  sister,  the  Mud- 
Earth-Lady;"  "the  Germ-Integrating  Deity,  and 
his  younger  sister,  the  Life-Integrating  Deity." 
These  seven  generations  of  gods  end  with  the  birth 
of  a  brother  and  sister,  named  Izanagl  and  Izanami 
(i.  e.,  "the  male-who-invites  and  the  female-who- 
invites").  These  two  are  commanded  by  \\\& 
higher  and  more  ancient  heavenly  deities  to  "make, 
consolidate,  and  give  birth  to  this  drifting  land;" 
whereupon  they  two,  "standmgfupon  the  floating 
Bridge  of  Heaven,  pushed  down  a  jewelled  spear, 
and  stirred  the  ocean  brine  till  it  became  thick 
and  sticky;1  and  then,  drawing  the  spear  upward, 


'Japanese  cosmology  seems  to  postulate  eternal  matter, 
but  "it  is  matter  almost  completely  lacking  consistency — an 
indescribable,  nebulous,  unsubstantial,  floating,  muddy  foam" 
"Japan:  Its  History,  Arts,  and  Literature."  By  Captain 
F.  Brinkley.  Vol.  V,  p.  108.  (J.  B.  Millet  &  Co.,  Boston 
and  Tokyo.) 


22  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

the  brine  that  dropped  down  from  the  end  of  the 
spear  became  an  island."  Upon  this  island  Izanagi 
and  Izanami  descended  from  the  Heaven  above, 
and  in  course  of  time  generated  all  the  islands  of 
the  Japanese  world.  When  they  had  finished  giv- 
ing birth  to  countries  they  proceeded  to  give 
birth  to  deities,  and  so  by  them  were  begotten 
fourteen  islands  and  thirty-five  deities.  There 
is  little  room  to  doubt  that  Izanagi  and  Izan- 
ami are  a  mythological  representation  of  the 
generative  powers  of  nature;  but  their  portrait- 
ure in  the  Japanese  literature  has  probably  re- 
ceived some  coloring  from  Chinese  influence  and 

^WHSSHWW*1**'*  *"**"«*aBi^B«»»«»*BWB^«Bi[^Bl 

thought. 

But  in  giving  birth  to  the  deity  of  fire, 
Izanami  died,  and  her  brother  buried  her,  and 
drawing  his  mighty  sword  he  proceeded  to  cut  off 
the  head  of  his  son,  the  deity  of  fire.  Where- 
upon, wonderful  to  tell,  sixteen  deities  were  born 
from  the  blood  and  the  different  parts  of  the  body 

^•HPV8MlMHKBMCMlGaai£MQ0pH?4MfUM9>MVWB*'- 

of  the  fire-god.  Among  the  names  of  these  we 
find  such  titles  as  "Rock-splitter,"  "Root-splitter," 
"Brave-snapping/'  and  "Possessor-of-Mountains ;" 
and  the  name  of  the  sword  which  cleft  the  head 


IZANAGI  AND  IZANAML  23 

of   the   fire-god   was   '"Heavenly,"    or    "Majestic- 
Point-Blade-Extended." 

After  the  birth  of  these  deities,  Izanagi  longed 
to  see  again  his  sister  and  spouse,  and  went  to 
seek  her  in  the  underworld.  He  called  to  her  and 
asked  her  to  come  hack  to  him.  She  answered 
that  such  was  her  desire,  but  she  must  consult  the 
deities  of  Hades,  and  she  bade  him  wait,  saying, 
"Look  not  at  me."  One  can  not  help  comparing 
here  the  Greek  myth  of  Orpheus  and  Euiydice. 
Orpheus  descended  into  the  lower  world,  charmed 
Pluto  with  his  lyre,  and  obtained  permission  for 
his  wife  Eurydice  to  return,  following  behind  him, 
but  only  on  condition  that  Orpheus  should  not 
look  back  at  her  till  they  had  both  reached  the 
upper  world.  He  grew  impatient,  looked  back  to 
see  if  she  were  indeed  following,  and  she  at  once 
vanished  from  his  sight.  According  to  the  Jap- 
anese myth,  however,  Izanagi  grew  tired  of  wait- 
ing outside,  made  a  light  and  entered,  and  wa* 
shocked  to  behold  maggots  swarming  over  her  body, 
and  eight  thunder-deities  dwelling  in  her  rotting 
form  where  they  had  been  born.  He  turned  and 
lied  back,  but  she  pursued  him  with  the  forces 


24  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

of  the  underworld.    He  succeeded  in  driving  them 

*-J 


all  back,  and  with  a  mighty  rock  blocked  up  the 
pass  of  Hades.  Then  he  went  to  purify  himself 
by  bathing  in  a  stream,  and  from  his  staff,  and 
girdle,  and  bracelet,  and  various  garments,  and 
from  the  filth  which  he  contracted  in  the  under- 
world were  born  a  multitude  of  deities,  bearing 
composite  names  of  strange  significance.  There 
was  also  born,  as  he  washed  his  left  eye,  a  deity 
who  was  called  "the  Heaven-Shining-Great-August 
One  ;"  and  from  his  right  eye  was  born  the  "Moon- 
Night-Possessor/'  and  as  he  washed  his  nose  there 
was  born  Susa-no-Wo,  "Impetuous-Male-Deity.'' 

But  we  need  not  pursue  further  this  seemingly 
"endless  genealogy"  of  the  deities.  We  are  told 
in  section  xxx  that  in  a  divine  assembly  of 
eight  hundred  myriad  deities  it  was  decided  to 
send  one  of  their.  number  to  govern  "the  Central 
Land  of  Reed-Plains,"  and  subdue  the  "savage 
Earthly  Deities."  Various  deities  were  sent,  and 
at  length  a  grandchild  of  the  Sun-Goddess1  be- 


the  rituals  he  is  often  called  "The  Sovran  Grand- 
child," though  an  adopted  son  of  the  Goddess;  so  "the  sov- 
ran grandchild"  is  first  applied  to  the  founder  on  earth  of 
the  Mikado's  dynasty,  and  afterward  to  each  and  all  of  his 
successors  on  the  throne  of  Japan. 


COSMOGONY  REMARKABLE.          25 

came  the  Ruler  of  the  Empire,  and  h<jars  the  com- 
posite name  of  Kamii-ijainato-ikar^-bik-o,  but  is 
commonly  called  by  his  "canonical  name,"  Jiinnnt, 
a  title  given  him  long  after  his  decease.  From 
such  heavenly  origin  sprang  all  the  Emperors  »>!' 
Japan,  and  the  present  Mikado,  like  all  his  pivd.-- 
cessors,  is  thus  conceived  as  an  offspring  of  Huavi-n. 
a  dirfifit_dfippfiflflp;nf,  o,f  fha  fln^'^|f  heavenfo  dei- 
ties.  The  significance  of  this  fact  will  appear  con- 
spicuously when  we  come  to  notice  more  particu- 
larly the  essential  elements  in  the  Shinto  cult. 

On  this  remarkable  cosmogony  and  mythology 
we  do  well  at  this  point  to  offer  the  following 
observations : 

(1)  These  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  Jap- 
anese Archipelago  and  its  rulers  are  regarded  as 
genuine  traditions  handed  duvn  fruni  former  ages. 
One  part  of  the  tradition  is  that  the  Emperor,  who 
took  pains  to  have  the  old  records  carefully  looked 
after,  employed  a  person  living  in  his  household, 
who  was  gifted  with  marvelous  memory ;  "'he  could 
repeat  without  mistake  the  contents  of  any  docu- 
ment he  had  ever  seen,  and  never  forgot  anything 
that  he  had  heard ;"  and  from  the  lips  of  this  man 


26  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

of  prodigious  memory  the  scribe  Yasumaro  wrote 
down  the  contents  of  the  Ko-ji-Jci.* 

(2)  Notice,  in  the  next  place,  that  the  island 
world  of  Japan  is  all  the  world  which  these  records 
know  anything  about.     The  universe  of  this  cos- 
mogony consists  of  "the  islands  of  the  Central- 
Land  of  the  Reed-Plains,"  with  their  inland  and 
surrounding     seas,     and     "the     Plain    of     High 
Heaven/'  which,  however,  was  not  conceived  as 
very  far  away  above  them. 

(3)  The  entire  description  of  the  beginnings 
of  heaven,  and  earth,  and  gods,  and  men  accords 
with  th?  idea  of  a  continuous  process  of  evolution. 

. 

The  first  three  heavenly  deities  "were  born  alone, 
and  hid  their  persons,"  or  disappeared.  All  the 
other  deities  are  spoken  of  as  begotten,  or  born, 
and  the  deities  give  birth  to  the  different  islands 
of  the  earth.2 


aSee  Chamberlain's  English  translation  of  the  Ko-j-i-ki, 
p.  iv.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  story  of  Ezra  dictating 
the  lost  sacred  books  of  Israel,  from  a  memory  inspired  super- 
naturally,  while  five  rapid  scribes  wrote  down  what  was  told 
them.  See  2  Esdras,  chap.  xiv. 

2We  may   compare  the   fact  that   in  our  book   of   Genesis 

the    formation    of    the    earth    and   the    heavens    is    called    "the 

generations    of  the  heavens  and  the  earth"    (Gen.   ii,   4).      In 

a  paper  of  the  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan" 

(vol.   xvi,   part  I),  Dr.  J.   Edkins  has  an  interesting  compar- 


NO  SUPREME  GOD.  27 

(4)  The  world-idea  of  this  old  mythology 
is  in  notable  keeping  with  the  ancestor  worship, 
and  the  Animism  which  enter  so  largely  into  the 
Shinto  faith.  In  spite  of  all  the  wars  and  dis- 
cords of  the  deities,  there  is  a  primordial  rn.Qni.-ni, 
so  to  speak,  at  the  basis  of  Japanese  cosmogony, 
and  of  all  its  diverse  generations  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth ;  and  yet  there  is  no  one  Supreme 
Ruler  in  all  the  Pantheon  of  eight  hundred  myriad 
gods.  "When  a  great,  council  of  the  gods  assemble 
in  the  bed  of  the  Tranquil  Heavenly  River,  no  one 
deity  is  chief  among  them,  and  we  are  at  a  loss  to 
imagine  who  has  authority  to  call  them  together 
or  to  preside  over  the  assembly.  Izanagi  seems  for 
a  while  to  be  the  chief  creator  and  ruler,  but  after 
a  time  he  disappears,  and  the  Sun  Goddess,  his 
daughter  Amaterasu,  has  her  heavenly  domain 
shaken  and  ravaged  by  her  younger  brother,  but  is 
avenged  by  the  heavenly  assembly  of  gods,  who  fine 
and  punish  the  offender,  "and  expel  him  with  a  di- 
vine expulsion."  So  the  Sun  Goddess  maintains 

ison  of  "Persian  elements  in  Japanese  legends,"  in  which 
hr>  shows  analogies  between  Mithra  and  Amaterasu,  the  seven 
Japanese  deities  of  wood,  water,  fire,  wind,  earth,  sea,  and 
mountain  with  the  Mazdean  Amesha-spentas,  and  analogies 
of  the  underworld  in  several  other  mythic  cults. 


28  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

her  dominion  by  the  help  of  the  eight  hundred 
myriad  gods,  no  one  of  whom  is  invested  with 
supreme  power.  It  appears  from  certain  poems  of 
the  Manyoshu  that  the  moon  as  well  as  the  sun 
was  extensively  worshiped  among  the  primitive 
Japanese.1 

(5)  It  accords  with  all  these  ideas  that  the 
devotees  of  the  "pure  Shinto"  faith  trace  all  their 
history  back  to  the  age  of  the  gods,  and  recognize 
some  deity  in,  or  back  of,  all  phenomena.  Japan 
is  the  country  of  the  gods;  every  Japanese  is  a 
descendant  or  offspring  of  the  gods,  and  the 
Mikado  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the  imperial 
line  which  has  continued  in  unbroken  succession 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  Japan  is,  there- 
fore, superior  to  all  other  countries,  and  the  Jap- 
anese, being  thus  directly  from  the  gods,  are  su- 
perior in  every  respect  to  other  people.  Sprung 
from  the  gods,  they  need  no  codes  of  moral  law 
(like  the  Chinese),  for  they  are  naturally  perfect, 
and  do  the  right  things  spontaneously. 

JSee  the  valuable  paper  on  "The  Beginning  of  Japanese 
History,  Civilization,  and  Art,"  by  the  Rev.  I.  Dooman,  in 
Vol.  XXV  of  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan;" 
especially  his  chapter  iv,  on  "The  Fundamental  Religious 
Ideas  of  the  Early  Japanese." 


HONORING  THE  GODS.  29 

7.  The  Japanese  a  Self -centered  People.  The 
Japanese  people,  with  such  traditions  and  such  a 
faith,  would  naturally  be  a  ^I'li'-mitcrcd  people, 
and  they  conceived  their  island-empire  as  occupy- 
ing the  summit  of  the  earth.  The  Mikado  is  the 
Son  of  Heaven,  entitled  and  empowered  to  reign 
perpetually  over  the  land  and  the  sea.  But  as  all 
the  people  are  descendants  of  the  gods,  and  the 
islands  and  all  that  is  in  them  have  also  been  he- 
gotten  of  the  gods,  it  follows  that  the  worship  of 
ancestors  is  a  worship  of  all  the  gods  of  whom  they 
have  knowledge,  and  all  the  lower  animate  and  in- 
animate things  in  the  world  are  also  in  some  wav 

v1 

instinct  with  the  deities  from  whom,  they  wnv 
born,  and  whose  they  are. 

Accordingly,  the  honoring  of  the  god*  is  a 
fundamental  thing  in  the  Shinto  thought  and  in 
the  Japanese  civilization  and  government.  Every 
loyal  subject  of  the  Mikado's  Empire  is  expected 
to  be  true  to  the  ancient  faith.  It  is  assumed  that 
religion  and  worship  and  the  propor  administra- 
tion of  government  are  all  essential  to  each  other. 

«•  n    ii  n..  i       i  i  V  •••••••••^•••••••••••••^•^  ""•^«^^^B 

The  Japanese  word  (Matsuri-goto) ,  which  is  used 
to  denote  the  art  of  government,  means,  literally, 


30  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

worshiping.  And  it  is  a  common  thought  and 
saying:  "Everything  in  the  world  depends  on  the 
spirit  of  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  there- 

r  o  J 

fore  the  worship  of  the  gods  is  a  matter  of  primary 
importance.  The  gods  who  do  harm  are  to  .be  ap- 
peased, so  that  they  may  not  punish  those  who 
have  offended  them;  and  all  the  gods  are  to  be 
worshiped,  so  that  they  may  be  induced  to  in- 
crease their  favors."1  One  of  the  rules  which  all 
the  ministers  of  the  Mikado  emphasized  in  the  old 
times,  before  the  introduction  of  Buddhism  into 
Japan,  was,  "First  serve  the  gods,  and  afterwards 
deliberate  on  matters  of  government."2 

8.     Essence  of  the  Shinto  Cult.     From  what 
we  have  now  stated  it  is  to  be  seen  that  reverence 


Satow's  "The  Revival  of  Pure  Shintau,  in  Trans- 
actions of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  vol.  iii,  Appendix, 
p.  71. 

2Lafcadio  Hearn  puts  this  whole  matter  very  tersely,  thus: 
"The  ethics  of  Shinto  were  all  comprised  in  the  doctrine  of 
unqualified  obedience  to  customs  originating,  for  the  most 
part,  in  the  family  cult.  Ethics  were  not  different  from  re- 
ligion; religion  was  not  different  from  government,  and  the 
very  word  for  government  signified  'matters  of  religion.'  All 
government  ceremonies  were  preceded  by  prayer  and  sacrifice ; 
and  from  the  highest  rank  of  society  to  the  lowest  every  per- 
son was  subject  to  the  law  of  tradition.  To  obey  was  piety; 
to  disobey  was  impious,  and  the  rule  of  obedience  was  en- 
forced upon  each  individual  by  the  will  of  the  community 
to  which  he  belonged." — "Japan,  an  Interpretation,"  p.  175. 


IMPERIAL  WORSHIP.  31 

and  worship  <>!'  the  ancostor-  of  the  Japanese,  and 
the  recognition  of  the  Mikado's  divinity  as  the 
incarnation  and  earthly  representation  of  the  ce- 
lestial  g<>ds,  constitute  the  essence  of  the  Shinto 
cult.  All  the  Japanese  are^  offsprings  of  the  gods, 
but  the  imperial  "Sovran  Grandchild"  of  Amat- 
crasu,  the  Sun-Goddess,1  is  pre-eminently  di- 
vine and  worshipful.  The  first  Mikado,  however, 
was  not  the  real  son  of  AnialcrtixUj  according  to  the 
mythic  tradition  of  the  prehistoric  time,  but  her 
nephew,  the  son  of  Oshi-ho-uii-mi,  whom  ^she 
adopted  as  her  son.  But  the  title  of  "Sovran 
Grandchild,"  having  been  applied  first  to  the 
founder  of  the  Mikado's  dynasty,  came  in  time  to 
be  the  common  title  of  all  the  Mikado's  successors. 
The  imperial  worship,  accordingly.,  represents  the 
most  conspicuous  national  form  of  the  Shinto  cult. 
9.  The  Great  Sanctuaries.  The  Mikado's 
palace  would,  accordingly,  be  the  most  holy 
shrine  of  the  national  worship,  the  private  and 
exclusive  sanctuary  of  the  imperial  ancestors. 
But  the  most  notable  shrine  of  the  Sun-Goddess 


JThis  respect  for  the  Sun-Goddess  points  to  an  aboriginal 
worship  of  the  sun  among  the  ancestors  of  the  Japanese 
people. 


32  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

is  not  now  the  residence  of  the  Mikado.  On 
account  of  some  great  calamity  that  occurred  far 
back  in  prehistoric  times,  her  worship  was  re- 
moved to  a  separate  temple,  and  was  finally  estab- 
lished in  the  province  of  Ise,  in  which  the  temples, 
called  the  "Two  great  divine  Palaces,"  are  the  re- 
sort of  thousands  of  pilgrims  every  year,  and, 
though  not  the  most  ancient,  are  regarded  as  first 
among  all  the  Shinto  temples  in  the  land.1  These 
two  divine  palaces,  or  temples,  called  Goku  and 
Naiku,  are  about  three  miles  apart,  and  stand  in 
the  midst  of  groves  of  aged  cryptomeria  trees.2 
They  are  approached  through  archways  (called 
torn,  or  toriwi)  of  simple  construction.  The 
GeJcu  temple  is  an  irregular  oblong  structure,  247 
feet  wide  at  the  front,  but  only  235  feet  wide  in 
the  rear ;  while  the  side  to  the  right  of  the  entrance 
is  339  feet,  and  that  on  the  left  is  335.  Within  this 
large  enclosure  are  others  of  similar  structure,  all 
made  of  the  wood  of  cryptomeria  trees,  and  left 
unpainted  and  without  ornamentation.  The  va- 


aStrictly  speaking,  the  Shinto  sanctuaries  are  shrines 
rather  than  temples,  so  that  the  Japanese  would  always  speak 
of  Shinto  shrines  as  distinct  from  Buddhist  temples. 

2A  kind  of  evergreen,  like  the  pine,  and  peculiar  to  Japan. 


TEMPLES  OF  ISE.  33 

rious  buildings  of  the  temples  are  thus  fashioned 
after  the  manner  of  the  simple  huts,  or  dwellings 
of  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  these  islands.  Some 
of  the  buildings  are  covered  with  thatched  roofs 
and  have  their  walls  and  doors  made  of  rough  mat- 
ting. Mr.  Satow,  who  has  visited  and  described  the 
temples  of  Ise,  says  that  "All  the  buildings  which 
form  part  of  the  two  temples  are  constructed  in  a 
style  that  is  disappointing  in  its  simplicity  and  per- 
ishable nature.  .  .  .  None  but  those  which  are 
roofed  with  thatch  are  entitled  to  be  considered  as 
being  in  strict  conformity  with  the  principles  of 
genuine  Shinto  temple  architecture."1  The  perish- 
able nature  of  these  temples  is  such  that  it  be- 
comes necessary,  and  is,  in  fact,  the  standing  rule, 

•it^^^^^ggj—gg^^aMBaMMMMHMMMMMMHMMMH^MMMHMMHMM^M^MMM 

to  rebuild  them  every  twenty  3'ears.  Two  sites  for 
each  temple  are  nsed  alternatively;  they  lie  close  to 
each  other,  so  that  the  new  building  is  constructed 
and  ready  for  use  before  the  old  one  is  removed. 
The  temple  which,  though  less  venerated  than 
those  at  Ise,  is  the  shrine-center  of  the  more  an- 
cient Shinto  cult,  is  the  one  at  Kitzuki,  in  the  an- 


1"The   Shintou  Temples   of   Ise."       "The   Transactions  of 
the  Asiatic   Society  of  Japan."    vol.   ii,  p.   108. 

3 

VN 


34  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

cient  province  of  Idzumo.     These  famous  shrines 


of  Ise  and  Kitzuki  represent  the  two  supreme  cults 
of  Shinto;  namely,  that  of  the  Sun- Goddess,  Ama- 
terasu,  and  that  of  Oho-kuni-mishi,  offspring  of  the 
brother  of  the  Sun-Goddess,  who  became  the  ruler 
of  the  unseen  world  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  But 
there  are  many  other  great  temples  maintained  in 
whole  or  in  part  from  the  imperial  revenues.  Some 
are  of  greater  sanctity  and  renown  than  others,  but 
those  of  Ise  and  Kitzuki  are  the  most  celebrated, 
and  every  Shinto  worshiper  is  expected,  at  least 
once  in  his  lifetime,  to  make  a  pilgrimage  himself, 
or  send  a  deputy  to  one  of  these  most  famous 
shrines. 

10.  Five  Noteworthy  Objects  Connected  with 
the  Worship.  One  noteworthy  fact  is  the  absence 
of  images  from  the  pure  Shinto,  temples;  that  is, 
images  exposed  as  objects  of  worship.  But  there 
is  a  number  of  objects  connected  with  these  sacred 
places  which  should  receive  brief  notice: 

(1)  There  is,  first,  the  wooden  archway  (called 
toriit  or  toriwi)  through  which  one  passes  in  ap- 
proaching the  temples.  It  consists  of  two  upright 
posts  set  in  the  ground  on  the  tops  of  which  is  laid 


SACRED  OBJECTS.  35 

a  long  straight  beam,  the  two  ends  of  which  project 
a  little  beyond  the  uprights.  Under  this  top  beam 
is  another  horizontal  beam  connecting  the  two 
side  posts  after  the  manner  of  a  girder.  Accord- 
ing to  Satow,  "The  toriwi  was  originally  a  perch 
for  the  fowls  offered  up  to  the  gods,  not  as  food, 
but  to  give  warning  at  daybreak.  It  was  erected 
on  any  side  of  the  temple  indifferently.  In  later 
times,  not  improbably  after  the  introduction  of 
Buddhism,  its  original  meaning  was  forgotten,  and 
it  was  placed  in  front  only  and  supposed  to  be  a 
gateway."1 

(2)  Opposite  the  various  entrances  to  the  tem- 
ples is  placed  a  wooden  screen,  or  fence,  called  Ban- 
pei,  which  serves  as  in  other  dwellings  to  guard  and 
hide  the  privacy  of  the  interior. 

(3)  Another  object  of  special  interest  is  the 
Go-hei,  a  slender  wand,  originally  a  branch  of  the 
sacred  tree  called  sakaki.     From  the  Go-hei  hang 
two  long  slips  of  white  paper  notched  on  the  op- 
posite sides.     These  wands  of  unpainted  wood  are 
supposed  to  represent  offerings  of  white  cloth  and 


ll'The   Shintau  Temples  of  Ise."        "Transactions  of  Asi- 
atic Society  of  Japan,"  vol.  ii,  p.  104. 


36  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

to  have  the  power  of  attracting  the  gods  to  th« 
places  where  they  are  kept. 

(4)  The  offerings  presented  consist  of  cups  of 
water  and  small  vessels  filled  with  rice,  vegetables, 
fruits,  salt,  fish,  birds,  and  other. simplest  products 
of  the  land  and  of  the  sea.    It  is  noteworthy  that 
we  find  no  bloody  sacrificial  rites  in  Shinto  wor- 
ship, in  which  one  life,  animal  or  human,  was  made 
a  vicarious  substitute  for  a  guilty  soul. 

(5)  The  sacred  mirror,  which  figures  in  the 
mythology  of  the  Sun-Goddess,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  once  used  to  entice  her  from  a  cave  into  which 
she  had  hid  herself  in  a  spell  of  anger,  is  carefully 
guarded  in  one  of  these  temples,  and  also  many 
copies  of  the  mirror.    "Each  mirror  is  contained  in 
a  box  which  is  furnished  with  eight  handles,  four 
on  the  box  itself  and  four  on  the  lid.    The  box  rests 
on  a  low  stand  and  is  covered  with  a  piece  of  cloth 
said  to  be  white  silk.    The  mirror  itself  is  wrapped 
in  a  brocade  bag,  which  is  never  opened  or  re- 
newed, but  when  it  begins  to  fall  to  pieces  from 
age,  another  bag  is  put  on,  so  that  the  actual  cover- 
ing consists  of  numerous  layers.    Over  the  whole  is 
placed  a  sort  of  cage  of  unpainted  wood  with  orna- 


ANCESTOR  WORSHIP.  37 

ments  said  to  be  of  pure  gold,  and  over  this  again  is 
thrown  a  sort  of  curtain  of  coarse  silk,  descending 
to  the  floor  on  all  sides."1  One  can  not  read  this 
description  of  the  sacred  mirror  thus  secretly 
guarded  in  a  costly  box  without  being  reminded  of 
the  sacred  ark  of  the  Levitical  sanctuary,  and  its 
enclosed  "tables  of  testimony/' 

11.  The  Ancestor  Worship.  We  have  already 
observed  that  ancestor  worship  is  the  basis  of 
the  Shinto  cult.  This  kind  of  worship  is  also 
conspicuous  among  the  Chinese,  and  is  held 
by  many  writers  to  have  been  the  original  cult 
of  all  civilized  races  and  peoples.  It  bej^an,  they 
tell  us,  with  a  belief  in  ghosts,  and  at  the  first 
there  was  no  clear  distinction  between  ghosts  and 
gods.  The  departed  spirit  was  thought  of  as  abid- 
ing near  the  place  where  the  dead  body  was  depos- 
ited, and  the  earliest  shrines  would  therefore  be 
the  graves  or  tombs  of  the  dead.  Later  thought 

would  beget  the  idea  that  the  invisible  spirits  were 
present  to  witness  the  acts,,  and  share  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  the  living.  And  this  fundamental  idea 
would,  of  course,  develop  into  many  diverse  con- 
ceptions and  practices  among  the  different  tribes. 

"The  Shintau.  Temples  of   Is?,"  pp.  119,  120. 


38  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

Without  here  discussing  this  theory  of  aborig- 
inal religious  thought  and  practice,  as  applicable 
to  all  peoples,  we  may  note  that  it  accords  with 
the  facts  of  Japanese  history  and  civilization  so 
far  as  we  can  now  trace  them  back  into  the  mists 
of  prehistoric  time.1  We  have  seen  that  Japanese 
history  and  mythology  run  together  and  blend  in 


remarkable  artlessness  as  they  stand  recorded  in 
the  oldest  literature  (e.  g.,  the  Ko-ji-ki  and  the  Ni- 
hongi).  Unthinkable  monstrosities  of  the  origin 
of  gods  and  lands  and  men  are  told  with  the  same 
simplicity  as  the  unquestionable  facts  of  historic 
times.  But  taking  the  one  leading  thought  which 
runs  through  all  these  records  and  appears  to  be 
fundamental  in  the  Japanese  civilization — namely, 
that  all  their  islands  and  emperors  and  chiefs  and 
people  are  offspring  of  the  gods,  the  very  first  of 
-whom  were  somehow  self-evolved  from  the  primor- 
dial elements  of  the  universe — we  look  upon  the 
Shinto  worship  as  it  exists  in  its  purest  form  to- 
day, and  note  the  most  apparent  facts. 

According  to  Aston,  ancestor  worship,  in  the  sense  of  a 
deification  and  honoring  of  the  departed  spirits  of  one's  own 
ancestors,  was  no  part  of  the  oldest  Shinto  cult,  but  rather  a 
later  importation  from  China.  See  his  "Shinto,  the  Way  of 
the  Gods,"  pp.  44-47.  London,  1905. 


THE  THREEFOLD  CULT.  39 

Mr.  Lafcadio  Hearn,  in  his  "attempt  at  an 
interpretation"  of  Japan,  has,  more  clearly  than 
any  other  writer  I  have  consulted,  described  the 
Shinto  ancestor-worship  under  its  three  forms  of 
Domestic.  Communal,  and  State  cults.  In  every 
case  it  is  a  worship  of  the  dead,  but  the  indi- 

*••*•• ^^^^^^•^•^•^••i^^'^  ^"^K^^WkMMMMMMMfertMMfcMvuMtt  ""**    •  '•••^••IMI^**** 

vidual.  whether  he  be  the  most  obscure  servant,  the 
influential  citizen,  the  commanding  chieftain,  or 
even  the  Mikado,  is  but  a  part  and  parcel  of  the 
body  politic.  There  is  a  most  remarkable  unity 
of  popular  and  national  life.  Government  and  re- 
ligion are  virtually  identical,  and  there  is  nodis- 
Unction  between  religion  and  morality.  Obedience  | 
and  conformity  to  tin-  n;k>  of  family  litV,  and  to 


the  customs  of  society  and  the  requirements  of  the 
State — these  are  the  simple  sum-total  of  Shinto 


law  and  gospel.  The  individual  must  always  stand 
ready  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity or  of  the  State.  Everything  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  public,  and  must  serve  the  public  weal. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  privacy,  and  oddities 
have  no  respectable  standing.  Tradition  and  cus- 
tom seem  to  constitute  the  essence  of  religion  as 
well  as  of  family,  communal,  and  more  public  life. 


40  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

There  is  no  code  of  moral  law;  there  is  nothing 
in  the  worship  that  is  fairly  comparable  to  what 
we  understand  by  dogma,  creed,  or  Church. 
Strictly  speaking,  this  system  has  no  heaven  or 
hell,  no  deep  sense  of  sin,  and  no  concept  of  media- 
torial redemption  from  sin  and  evil.  The  dead — 
all  the  dead  of  all  the  ages — are  conceived  as  some- 
how living  in  the  unseen  vacancy  around,  above, 
below ;  they  are  present  at  the  worship ;  they  haunt 
the  tombs ;  they  are  interested  in  the  life  and 
works  of  their  descendants ;  they  visit  their  former 
homes  and  attend  the  family  worship  there;  their 
happiness,  in  fact,  depends  upon  the  honor  and 
worship  which  their  living  descendants  pay  them; 
and  also  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  liv- 
ing is  believed  to  depend  upon  their  sense  of  filial 
duty  and  proper  reverence  toward  the  dead.  Fur- 
thermore, all  the  dead  are  supposed  to  become  gods 
and  attain  to  supernatural  power.  But  therejs.no 
one  Supreme  Deity;  no  central  throne  of  God;  no 
paradise  of  heavenly  blessedness.  So  far  as  any 
ideas  of  this  kind  obtain  among  the  people,,  they 
may  be  regarded  as  later  conceptions  introduced 
by  missionaries  or  adherents  of  other  religious  sys- 


ANIMISM.  41 

terns.  But  the  cult  implies  beyond  question  a  be- 
lief in  some  kind  of  future  life.  The  Yomi,  or 
Hades,  of  Shinto  mythology,  into  which  Izanagi 
went  to  seek  his  lost  sister,  was  conceived  as  "a 
hideous  and  polluted  land/'  and  even  the  realm  of 
the  unseen  heavenly  deities  was  never  longed  for 
by  the  devotees  of  Shinto.  Dooman  observes  that 
ato  the  Japanese  mind  and  imagination  Japan,  as 
a  place  of  residence,  was  far  superior  to  heaven, 
and  its  inhabitants  a  far  more  desirable  society 
than  those  living  in  the  transcendent  regions.  We 
see  that  every  god  who  is  sent  from  heaven  to 

MMMMMMqMMAft0K 

Japan  on  some  important  business  by  the  divine 
assembly  marries,  and  is  utterly  unwilling  to  go 
back  once  more  to  the  place  from  which  he  de- 
scended."1 

12.  Elements  of  Animism.  The  ancestor- 
worship  of  Shinto  can  not  be  disassociated  al- 
together from  the  elements  of  Animism  which 
appear  in  the  names  and  titles  of  certain  dei- 
ties, and  also  in  the  fact  that  there  are  "evil 
gods"  and  demons  who  are  capable  of  work- 
ing mischief  and  calamity  in  the  family,  the  corn- 

111  Japanese  History  of  Civilization  and  Arts."  "Trans- 
actions of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  vol.  xxv,  p.  89. 


42  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

munity,  and  the  State.  How  these  evil  deities 
originated  is  matter  of  myth,  legend,  and  specu- 
lation. Bad  men  would  naturally  be  supposed  to 
carry  their  evil  character  with  them  into  the  un- 
seen world  of  the  dead,  and  to  have  the  same 

-  •  •  - 

power  to  work  harm  among  the  living  as  the  good 
spirits  have  to  bestow  benefits.  But  human  spirits 
would  hardly  be  supposed  to  become  deities  of  the 
wind,  and  the  thunder,  and  the  waves,  and  the 

*.-.  .  —  ,i  ,j».\.-  .  .   . .- ;.,.^.v .-y .nfu^ ^4~i*&^x&r'Mfv&_^^i-si»4&+twmt4&&x&&dS&'*iS^ 

mountains ;  of  the  trees,  and  the  fire,  and  the  sun, 
and  the  moon,  and  the  autumn,  and  the  food  of 
men.  Here  the  old  mythology  of  the  Ko-ji-Jci 
comes  in  to  tell  us  of  a  prehistoric  and  cosmical  ori- 
gin of  evils.  When  Izanagi  went  to  find  his  sister 
_  „.  -~"~~~^  kj 

Izanami  in  the  hideous  and  polluted  underworld, 
and  found  her  body  swarming  with  maggots  and 
eight  thunder  deities  dwelling  in  the  different  parts 
of  her  decaying  form,,  he  fled  back  in  astonish- 
ment and  awe,  and  she  in  a  rage  of  shame  pur- 
sued him  with  all  the  horrid  forces  of  that  nether 
sphere.  He  escaped,  but  not  without  contracting 
much  pollution  on  his  august  person,  and  when  he 
sought  to  wash  and  cleanse  himself  in  the  waters 
of  a  certain  river,  there  were  born  from  the  filth 


SPIRITS  GOOD  AND  EVIL.  43 

of  his  person  two  deities,  named  "the  wondrous 
deity  of  eighty  evils,"  and  "the  wondrous  deity  of 
great  evils."  These  evil  gods  afterwards  multi- 
plied, and  may  be  supposed  to  be  the  authors  of 
all  the  demons,  goblins,  and  mischievous  spirits 
of  evil  that  disturb  the  world  and  its  inhabitants. 
But  there  are  also  good  spirits  innumerable  that 
animate  all  moving  things.  The  winds  and  the 
waters,  the  songs  of  birds  and  the  hum  of  the  bees, 
the  growing  plants  and  trees,  are  all  instinct  with 
a  sort  of  conscious  life,  and  the  spirits  that  live 
and  move  in  them  are  to  be  recognized  and  rev- 
erenced by  prayers  and  offerings. 

The  spirits  of  dead  ancestors  and  the  power- 
ful spirits  of  the  winds  and  the  storms  and  the 
growths  of  nature  may  or  may  not  have  been 
supposed  to  have  concert  of  action  understood  be- 
tween them.  The  Japanese  mind  seems  never  to 
have  elaborated  any  formal  philosophy  of  this  life 
or  any  specific  theories  of  the  life  to  come. 

13.  The  Domestic  Cult.  The  simplest  and 
most  original  form  of  the  Shinto  worship  is 
that  of  the  family.  In  the  inner  chamber 
of  every  home  there  is  a  high  shelf  against 


44  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

the  wall  called  the  "Shelf  of  the  August  Spirits." 
Upon  it  is  placed  a  miniature  temple,  in  which 
are  deposited  little  tablets  of  white  wood  bearing 
the  names  of  the  deceased  members  of  the  house- 
hold. These  are  often  spoken  of  as  "spirit  sticks" 
and  "spirit  substitutes."  Before  these  household 
shrines  simple  offerings  are  offered  daily  and  a 
few  words  of  prayer  are  spoken.  The  ceremony  is 
a  very  short  one,  but  as  regular  as  the  coming  of 
the  day.  It  is  usually  performed  by  the  head  of 
the  family,  but  it  frequently  devolves  upon  the 
woman,  the  mother  or  the  grandmother,  rather 
than  the  father.  "No  religion,"  says  Hearn,  "is 
more  sincere,  no  faith  more  touching  than  this 
domestic  worship,  which  regards  the  dead  as  con- 
tinuing to  form  a  part  of  the  household  life  and 
needing  still  the  affectidn  and  the  respect  of  their 
children  and  kindred.  Originating  in  those  dim 
ages  when  fear  was  stronger  than  love,  .  .  . 
the  cult  at  last  developed  into  a  religion  of  af- 
fection; and  this  it  yet  remains.  The  belief  that 

the  dead  need  affection,  that  to  neglect  them  is  a 

"*«»^—  __^_^jj^ 

cruelty,  that  their  happiness  depends  upon  duty, 
is  a  belief  that  has  almost  cast  out  the  primitive 


THE  HOUSEHOLD  WORSHIP.         45 

fear  of  their  displeasure.  They  are  not  thought 
of  as  dead :  they  are  believed  to  remain  among 
those  who  loved  them.  Unseen,  they  guard  the 
home  and  watch  over  the  welfare  of  its  inmates; 
they  hover  nightly  in  the  glow  of  the  shrine-lamp, 
and  the  stirring  of  its  flame  is  the  motion  of  them. 
.  .  .  From  their  shrine  they  observe  and  hear 
what  happens  in  the  house;  they  share  the  family 
joys  and  sorrows.  They  were  the  givers  of  life; 
they  represent  the  past  of  the  race,  and  all  its 
sacrifices.  .  .  .  Yet,  how  little  do  they  require 
in  return !  Scarcely  more  than  to  be  thanked,  as 
founders  and  guardians  of  the  home,  in  simple 
words  like  these:  Tor  aid  received,  by  day  and 
by  night,  accept,  august  ones,  our  reverential  grati- 
tude/ "* 

14.  The  Communal  Cult.  The  next  phase 
of  the  Shinto  worship  to  be  noticed  is  that 
which  is  represented  in  the  temples  scattered 
about  everywhere  in  the  land  and  which  are 
said  to  number  over  195,000  at  the  present 
time.  In  every  community,  village,  and  large  city 
is  found  the  parish-temple,  and  in  the  larger  towns 


141  Japan:  an  Interpretation,"  pp.  52,  53.    New  York,  1904. 


46  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

each  section  or  district  has  its  public  shrine,  in 
which  the  whole  community  honor  the  deified  an- 
cestors of  certain  noble  families  of  ancient  time, 

'••4AMK«4HBMiCflSMIMMMM0niiAMMHM^riMNMHH«MM^Uw«^M^H^«M««>'M 

or  the  spirit  of  the  first  great  patriarch  of  the 
clan.  The  farmers,  or  those  who  till  the  fields, 
usually  dwell  in  a  village  on  the  principal  high- 
way, and  go  out  thence  to  work  the  rural  dis- 
tricts round  about.  So  the  villages  vary  in  size 
from  fifty  houses  set  on  a  single  street  half  a 
mile  long  to  a  large  town  of  many  hundred  houses. 
In  Simmons  and  Wigmore's  "Notes  on  Land  Ten- 
ure and  Local  Institutions  in  Old  Japan/'1  we 
read  that  the  Japanese  rural  population  is,  as  a 
rule,  "exceedingly  stable.  The  villagers  are  for  the 
most  part  engaged  wholly  or  partially  as  culti- 
vators of  land,  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
many  generations  of  cultivators  have  been  born 
and  have  died  on  the  same  spot.  From  the  almost 
numberless  replies  to  inquiries,  the  answer  usually 
is,  'We  do  not  know  where  our  ancestors  came 
from,  or  when  they  came  to  live  on  this  spot.  Our 
temple  register  may  tell,  but  we  have  never  thought 
about  the  matter.' 


vol.   xix,   pt.   I,   of  the   "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Japan,"  pp.  93,   94. 


THE  UJIGAMI.  47 

The  deity  honored  at  these  village  temples  is 
called  the  Vjigami,  and  recognized  as  the  patri- 
archal and  tutelary  god  of  the  community.  Just 
whether  he  were  the  clan-ancestor  of  the  first 
settlers  in  that  particular  parish,  or  the  spirit  of 
some  mighty  ruler  of  that  district  at  a  former 
time,  or  the  patron-god  of  some  noble  family  once 
resident  there,  is  as  uncertain  as  the  knowledge 
of  the  common  villagers  touching  their  earliest  pro- 
genitors. But  in  every  class  these  Ujigami  were 
worshiped  as  the  tutelar  deity  of  the  community 
in  which  the  temple  stood.  Also,  in  the  larger 
towns  there  are  Shinto  temples  dedicated  to  cer- 
tain patron-gods  of  other  localities. 

Each  one  of  these  parish  temples  naturally  has 
a  most  intimate  relation  to  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity about  it.  Thither  every  child  born  in  the 
parish  is  taken,  when  a  month  old,  and  formally 
named  and  placed  under  the  protection  of  the  an- 
cestral deity.  As  it  grows  up  it  is  regularly  taken 
to  observe  all  the  festivals  and  the  processions  and 
ceremonies,  and  the  temple  groves  and  gardens  be- 
come its  common  playground.  There  is  nothing 
somber  or  solemn  about  this  religious  cult  to  scare 


48  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

a  child,  but  rather  very  much  to  attract  and  in- 
terest.1 Every  village  temple  has  its  appointed 
days  of  public  worship,  and  neighboring  districts 
vie  with  each  other  in  making  their  great  festival 
days  occasions  of  popular  delight.  To  these  joy- 
ous festivals  every  family  contributes  according  to 
ability,  and  the  worship  is  accompanied  by  public 
amusements  of  various  kinds,  athletic  sports,  and 
the  sale  of  toys  for  children.  The  temple  worship 
consisted  in  the  presentation  of  offerings  of  cloth, 
herbs,  fruits,  and  other  of  the  most  common 
products  of  the  country,  and  in  a  ritual  prayer 
enumerating  the  various  gifts  and  supplicating  for 
prosperity  and  success  in  all  communal  affairs, 
for  protection  against  sickness,  plague,  and  famine, 
and  for  the  triumph  of  their  chieftains  in  time 
of  war.  In  this  way  the  Ujigami  was  recognized 
as  the  tutelar  deity  of  the  community  and  the 


*This  cheery  and  jubilant  aspect  of  Shintau  worship  ought 
not  to  be  deemed  an  objectional  element  of  true  religion. 
Rather  the  opposite  idea,  that  religion  is  a  matter  of  soul- 
peril  and  seriousness  so  grave  as  to  produce  fear  or  dread  of 
the  deity,  is  a  perversion  of  the  truth.  True  love  of  God  (or 
of  the  gods)  must  needs  have  wholesome  reverence  for  what 
is  adorable,  but  also  ought  to  inspire  a  warmth  of  affection 
and  a  confidence  that  drives  out  superstitious  fear  and  begets 
exquisite  delight  in  the  heart  and  soul  and  mind  of  the  true 
worshiper. 


THE  NATIONAL  WORSHIP.  49 

district,  the  abiding  friend  and  helper  of  his  off- 
spring. The  communal  cult  thus  powerfully  con- 
firmed the  family  cult,  and  enforced  the  lesson 
that  no  man  could  live  unto  himself  alone. 

15.  The  National  Cult.  But  it  is  in  the 
State  or  National  observances  of  the  great 
temples  that  the  Shinto  worship  is  seen  in 
its  most  elaborated  form.  The  substance  and 
manner  of  this  worship  may  be  learned  from 
the  ancient  Japanese  rituals,  which  make  mention 
of  the  chief  deities,  enumerate  the  offerings  that 
are  presented  at  the  sacred  shrines,  and  furnish 
us  the  very  language  employed  "in  the  presence 
of  the  sovran  gods."  How  early  these  rituals  of 
worship  were  committed  to  writing  is  an  open 
question,  but  it  is  altogether  probable  that  in 
substance  they  had  been  transmitted  orally  through 
many  generations  before  they  were  put  in  written 
form.  From  these  rituals,  and  the  practices  of 
the  worship  as  they  may  be  observed  at  the  present 
time,  we  are  able  to  learn  the  chief  features  of 
the  service.1 


"Ancient  Japanese  Rituals,"  translated  and  anno- 
tated by  E.  Satow,  in  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of 
Japan,"  vol.  vii,  part  II,  and  part  IV;  vol.  ix,  part  II.  Also 

4 


50  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

In  connection  with  this  national  worship  we 
may  here  note  (1)  that  the  great  festivals  and 
occasions  of  worship  were  observed  in  all  the  prin- 
cipal temples  at  the  same  time;  (2)  the  Yengishiki 
mentions  3,132  shrines  distinguished  as  great  and 
small;  there  were  492  great  shrines,  and  2,640 
small  ones.  But  besides  these  there  were  many 
thousands  of  smaller,  undistinguished  temples  scat- 
tered all  over  the  lands.  (3)  These  various  shrines 
were  dedicated  to  a  great  number  of  deities, 
and  there  were  many  gods  who  received  worship 
in  a  number  of  temples  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
(4)  The  offerings  were  made  in  the  name  of  "the 
Sovran  Grandchild"  of  the  sun-goddess,  the  divine 
title  of  every  Mikado,  and  Satow  remarks  that 
"it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  suggestion  that  the 
sun  was  the  earliest  among  the  powers  of  nature 
to  be  deified,  and  that  the  long  series  of  gods 
who  precede  her  in  the  cosmogony  of  the  Ko-ji-Jci 
and  Nihongi,  most  of  whom  are  shown  by  their 
names  to  have  been  mere  abstractions,  were  in- 


by  Karl  Florenz,  in  vol.  xxvii,  part  I.  In  vol.  vii,  part  II, 
pp.  106-108,  Satow  gives  a  list  of  the  Norito  rituals  con- 
tained in  the  Yengishiki,  to  the  number  of  twenty-seven.  Of 
these  he  translates  only  nine. 


PRIESTS  AND  PRIESTESSES.          51 

vented  to  give  her  a  genealogy,  into  which  were 
inserted  two  or  perhaps  more  of  her  own  attri- 
butes, personified  as  separate  deities."1  (5)  The 
priesthood  seems  to  have  heen  for  the  most  part 
hereditary,  and  many  priests  claimed  descent  from 
the  chief  deity  to  whom  the  temple  was  dedicated. 
The  reader  of  the  ritual  was  a  memher  of  the 
priestly  tribe  which  traced  its  origin  to  Oho- 
nakato-mi,  chief  of  the  whole  Nakatomi  family. 
Another  priestly  family  is  the  Irnbibi  tribe.2  (6) 
Virgin  priestesses  also  figure  in  the  celebration  of 
the  great  ceremonies  of  State.  Princesses  of  the 
Mikado's  family  have  been  consecrated  to  officiate 
in  the  temples  of  Ise  and  in  other  great  temples 
also.  While  some  of  the  priestesses  are  virgin 
princesses,  some  of  them  also  are  young,  not  yet 
having  reached  the  nubile  age,  and  when  they 
reach  that  age  they  cease  to  be  priestesses.  With 
others  the  office  is  hereditary,  as  it  is  with  men, 


^'Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  vol.  vii, 
part  II,  p.  127. 

2"The  priests  who  officiated  at  the  chief  festivals  belonged 
exclusively  to  two  families,  the  Nakatomi  and  the  Irabibi,  both 
of  whom  were  descended  from  inferior  deities,  who  accompa- 
nied the  'Sovran  Grandchild'  when  he  came  down  to  earth." 
— Satow,  in  Westminster  Review  for  July,  1878,  p.  16. 


52  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

and  the  women  of  this  class  retain  and  exercise 
their  priestly  office  after  marriage. 

16.  The  Harvest  Service.  As  an  example 
of  public  worship  of  exceptional  interest,  we 
take  the  ritual  ceremony  for  Harvest,  which 
is  celebrated  once  a  year — the  fourth  day  of 
the  second  month.  The  chief  service  is  at  the 
capital,  but  the  festival  is  observed  in  all  the 
provinces  under  the  direction  of  the  local  rulers. 
Preparations  go  on  for  a  fortnight  beforehand, 
and  the  service  begins  twenty  minutes  before  seven 
in  the  morning.  At  the  capital,  in  the  large  court 
used  for  the  worship  of  the  Shinto  gods,  the  min- 
isters of  State  assemble,  along  with  the  priests 
and  priestesses  of  many  temples  which  are  sup- 
ported from  the  Mikado's  treasury.  When  all 
things  are  in  readiness,  the  ministers,  priests,  and 
priestesses  enter  in  succession  and  occupy  the 
places  assigned  them.  The  various  offerings  are 
duly  presented  and  the  ritual  is  read.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  each  section  of  the  ritual  as  recited 
by  the  reader,  all  the  priests  respond,  "0  I"  (Yes, 
or  Amen.) 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  the  ritual  used  on 


THE  HARVEST  RITUAL.  53 

one  of  these  occasions:  "Hear,  all  of  you,  as- 
sembled priests  of  higher  and  lower  order.  I  de- 
clare in  the  presence  of  the  sovran  gods1  whose 
praises  are  fulfilled  as  heavenly  temples  and 
country  temples.2  I  fulfill  your  praises  by  setting 
up  the  great  offerings  of  the  sovran  grandchild's 
augustiness,  made  with  intention  of  deigning  to 
begin  the  harvest  in  the  second  month  of  this 
year,  as  the  morning  sun  rises  in  glory.  I  declare 
in  the  presence  of  the  sovran  gods  of  the  har- 
vest: If  the  sovran  gods  will  bestow  in  many- 
bundled  ears  and  in  luxuriant  ears  the  late-ripen- 
ing harvest  which  they  will  bestow,  the  late-ripen- 
ing harvest  which  will  be  produced  by  the  dripping 
of  foam  from  the  arms  and  by  drawing  the  mud 
together  between  the  opposite  thighs,  then  I  will 
fulfill  their  praises  by  setting  up  the  first  fruits 
in  a  thousand  ears,  and  many  hundred  ears,  rais- 
ing high  the  beer-jars,  filling  them,  and  ranging 
them  in  rows."  The  ritual  goes  on  to  specify, 
among  the  offerings,  sweet  and  bitter  herbs, 
"things  which  dwell  in  the  blue  sea-plain ;"  clothes 
bright,  and  glittering,  and  soft,  and  coarse;  a 

'The  reader  of  the  ritual  here  personates  the  Mikado. 
2Teinples  here  used  by  metonymy  for  deities. 


54  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

white  horse,  a  white  boar,  and  a  white  cock.  The 
names  also  of  many  deities  are  declared:  the  "di- 
vine Producer,"  the  "great  Goddess  of  Food," 
"wonderf  ul-rock-Gate,"  "the  from-heaven-shining- 
great  Deity  who  sits  in  Ise,"  "sovran  gods  who  sit 
in  the  Farms/'  "sovran  gods  who  sit  in  the  mouths 
of  the  mountains,"  and  those  "who  dwell  in  the 
partings  of  the  waters." 

As  soon  as  the  reader  had  finished  the  words 
of  the  ritual,  he  retired,  and  the  priests  distributed 
the  various  offerings  and  presented  them  to  the 
gods  for  whom  they  were  set  apart. 

17.  The  Great  Purification.  But  the  ritual 
of  the  Great  or  General  Purification  is  said 
to  be  "one  of  the  most  important  and  most 
solemn  ceremonies  of  the  Shinto  religion."  Pro- 
fessor Karl  Florenz,  who  has  given  us  a  trans- 
lation of  this  ritual,1  informs  us  that  it  is  by 
means  of  this  ceremony  that  "the  population  of  the 
whole  country,  from  the  princes  and  ministers 


vol.  xxvii,  part  I,  of  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Japan."  From  this  our  extracts  are  taken.  Flor- 
enz gives  in  great  detail  the  various  practices,  and  the  ancient 
and  modern  forms  of  the  ritual,  and  the  customs  at  different 
shrines.  He  also  discusses  the  question  of  the  origin  and  age 
of  the  ceremony. 


THE  GREAT  PURIFICATION.          55 

down  to  the  common  people,  is  purified  and  freed 
from  sins,  pollutions,  and  calamities."  It  is  cele- 
brated twice  a  year,  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  the 
sixth  and  twelfth  months.  "The  chief  ceremony 
was  performed  in  the  capital,  near  the  south  gate 
of  the  imperial  palace,  and  might  be  styled  the 
purification  of  the  court,  because  it  was  to  purify 
all  the  higher  and  lower  officials  of  the  imperial 
court.  In  a  similar  way  the  ceremony  was  cele- 
brated also  at  all  the  more  important  public  shrines 
of  the  whole  country."  Besides  the  regular  semi- 
annual celebration  of  the  -Great  T-uri fixation" 
(called  Oho-harahe),  it  is  also  performed  on  such 
special  occasions  as  at  the  accession  of  a  new  em- 
peror to  the  throne,  or  when  an  imperial  princess 
was  chosen  as  a  virgin  priestess  and  sent  to  the 
temple  of  Ise. 

Without  detailing  the  movements,  positions, 
and  practices  of  the  assembled  priests,  officials, 
and  common  people  at  the  service  of  the  General 
Purification,  we  simply  cite  a  few  extracts  from 
the  ritual  which  may  serve  to  show  us  the  under- 
lying concept  of  purification.  AYhile  the  ritual  is 
only  a  part  of  the  entire  ceremony  of  the  occa- 


56  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

sion,  we  are  told  that  it  is  not  infrequently  recited 
without  performing  the  ceremony.  Moreover, 
while  in  ancient  times  the  reader  was  always  a 
member  of  the  priestly  Nakatomi  tribe,  at  the 
present  time  the  ritual  is  read  by  the  officiating 
priest  of  each  particular  temple.  The  following 
excerpts  are  made  from  Florenz's  translation: 

"Hear,  all  of  you,  assembled  princes  of  the 
blood,  princes,  high  dignitaries,  and  men  of  the 
hundred  offices.  Hear,  all  of  you,  that  in  the  Great 
Purification  of  the  present  last  day  of  the  sixth 
month  of  the  current  year,  [the  Sovran]  deigns 
to  purify,  and  deigns  to  cleanse  the  various  of- 
fenses which  may  have  been  committed  either  in- 
advertently, or  deliberately,  especially  by  the  per- 
sons serving  in  the  imperial  court:  (viz.)  the  scarf - 
wearing  attendants,  the  sash-wearing  attendants 
(of  the  kitchen),  the  attendants  who  carry  quivers 
on  the  back,  the  attendants  who  gird  on  swords, 
the  eighty  attendants  of  the  attendants,  and,  more- 
over, by  the  people  serving  in  all  offices/' 

The  ritual  goes  on  to  declare  how  the  Sovran's 
dear  progenitors,  in  a  divine  assembly,  ordained 
that  the  "Sovran  Grandchild's  Augustiness  should 


THE  GREAT  PURIFICATION.          57 

tranquilly  rule  the  luxuriant  reed-plain  region  of 
fresh  young  spikes  as  a  peaceful  country;"  how 
they  expelled  with  a  divine  expulsion  the  savage 
deities,  and  "silenced  the  rocks  and  trunks  of 
trees;"  how  they  let  him  go  down  from  his  heav- 
enly place,  "and  dividing  a  road  through  the  eight- 
fold heavenly  clouds,"  they  sent  him  down  and 
gave  the  land  into  his  peaceful  keeping.  The 
ritual  also  makes  mention  of  various  kinds  of  of- 
fenses which  need  to  be  cleansed  and  purged  away, 
and  distinguishes  them  as  "heavenly  offenses"  and 
"earthly  offenses."  Among  the  former  are  "break- 
ing down  the  divisions  of  the  rice  fields,  filling  up 
the  irrigating  channels,  and  opening  the  flood- 
gate of  sluices,"  and  the  evacuation  of  one's  bowels 
in  improper  places.  Among  "earthly  offenses" 
are  the  cutting  the  skin  of  the  living  or  the  dead- 
body  so  as  to  become  defiled  by  blood,  being  af- 
fected with  corns,  bunions,  boils,  or  proud-flesh; 
sins  of  adultery,  the  offense  of  using  incantations, 
and  various  kinds  of  personal  calamity. 

"It  is  expected,"  the  ritual  adds,  "that  the 
heavenly  gods  will  be  favorably  disposed  by  reason 
of  these  offerings,  ceremonies,  and  ritual  of  the 


58  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

Great  Purification,  and  will  deign  to  purify  and 
cleanse,  and  make  all  the  specified  offenses  dis- 
appear, even  as  the  clouds  of  heaven  and  the  dense 
morning  and  evening  mists  disappear  before  the 
blowing  winds/'  It  is  expected  that  "the  goddess 
who  resides  in  the  current  of  the  rapid  stream  that 
comes  boiling  down  the  ravines,  from  the  tops  of 
the  mountains,"  and  the  goddess  who  resides  in 
the  currents  of  the  briny  ocean  will  carry  them 
away,  and  "swallow  them  down  with  gurgling 
sound,"  and  they  shall  be  utterly  "blown  away, 
banished,  and  got  rid  of,"  so  that  "from  this  day 
onwards  there  will  be  no  offense  in  the  four  quar- 
ters of  the  region  under  heaven,  especially  with 
regard  to  all  people  of  all  offices  who  respectfully 
serve  in  the  court  of  the  Sovran."  The  offenses 
were  thought  of  as  somehow  swept  away  by  the 
winds  and  the  waves,  and  then  swallowed  into 
the  depths  of  the  sea,  and  so  cast  down  into  the 
underworld,  the  realm  of  death  and  pollution, 
whence  all  defilements  were  supposed  to  have  orig- 
inated. So  they  were  cast  down  into  the  depths 
whence  they  came  forth. 

The  concluding  words  of  this  ritual  are  a  com- 


THE  GREAT  PURIFICATION.         59 

mand  for  the  "diviners  of  the  four  countries  to 
leave  and  go  away  to  the  great  river-way,  and  carry 
away  the  offenses  by  purification."  Thus  divina- 
tion was  honored,  as  moving  in  the  will  and  way 
of  the  gods;  hut  incantation  is  mentioned  among 
the  "earthly  offenses."  Probably  these  evil  incan- 
tations refer  to  evil-minded  witchcraft  and  in- 
voking calamity  on  others. 

This  great  ritual  ceremony  of  purification,  be- 
ing one  of  the  most  solemn  formal  expressions  of 
the  Shinto  cult,  calls  for  the  following  remarks: 

(1)  The  central  idea  is  purification  from  cer- 
tain forms  of  evil,  or  certain  kinds  of  offenses. 

(2)  The  offenses  are  conceived  as  either  will- 
fully committed,  or  committed  inadvertently. 

(3)  They  are  also  spoken  of  as  heavenly  and 
earthly.     This  distinction  seems  to  us  quite  arbi- 
trary and  unnatural,  but  it  probably  had  a  myth- 
ical origin  and  the  offenses  called  heavenly  are 
mainly  such  as  involve  distress  for  an  agricultural 
community.    They  are  sins  against  the  land  of  the 
godsj  while  the  earthly  offenses  are  mainly  matters 
of  personal  defilement.    In  all  cases  it  is  conspicu- 
ous that  the  Shinto  concept  of  offenses  which  need 


60  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

purging  away  is  that  of  outward  physical  pollution 
and  damage.  They  are  all  offenses  committed 
against  the  interests  of  the  community  and  likely 
to  bring  some  kind  of  calamity  upon  the  people. 

(4)  We  should  also  remark  that  while,  accord- 
ing to  the  ritual  of  the  Great  Purification,  it  is 
expected  that  from  that  day  forwards  "no  offense 
which  is  called  offense"  will  occur  again  in  the 
four  quarters  of  the  whole  region  under  heaven, 
the  same  ceremony  of  purification  is  repeated  every 
six  months — year  in  and  year  out. 

(5)  These  facts  serve  to  show  a  moral  and  re- 

N  ••WMMBIMMI 

ligious  basis  for  the  Japanese  love  of  cleanliness 
and  the  scrupulous  care  with  which  these  people  of 
"the  luxuriant  central  land  of  the  ears  of  fresh 
rice"  study  to  keep  their  bodies,  their  houses,  their 
temples,  and  their  whole  domain  free  from  all 
manner  of  physical  impurity. 

18.  Other  Kitual  Services.  Other  rituals  for 
other  occasions  and  purposes  furnish  nothing 
of  a  different  character  or  of  exceptional 
importance  that  we  need  here  give  further 
attention  to  their  various  contents  and  sug- 
gestions. There  are,  in  the  voluminous  Yen- 


CEREMONIAL  DISPLAY.  61 

gisliiki,  rituals  for  the  service  of  the  gods  of 
Kasuga,  for  the  service  of  the  goddess  of  food, 
and  of  the  gods  of  the  wind,  and  for  the  service 
of  particular  temples.  Some  of  these  services  are 
occasions  of  grand  ceremonial  display.  The  place, 
the  day,  the  hour,  and  all  the  details  of  the  service 
are  arranged  beforehand.  The  procession  of  those 
who  take  part  is  ordered  with  extreme  precision 
and  made  in  every  way  magnificent.  Various  or- 
ders of  officials  move  along  in  separate  ranks.  The 
priestess,  accompanied  by  many  mantled  attend- 
ants, is  drawn  in  a  car,  and  on  either  side  four 
men  in  scarlet  coats  carry  a  silk  umbrella  and 
a  huge,  long-handled  fan.  The  female  attendants 
and  servants  of  the  priestess,  each  a  lady  of  rank, 
follow  in  seven  carriages.  Chests  filled  with  sacri- 
ficial utensils  and  food  offerings,  the  messenger  of 
the  Mikado  and  his  attendants  of  rank,  have  their 
assigned  places  in  the  procession.  Upon  arriving 
at  the  temple  enclosure,  the  priestess  alights  from 
her  car  or  palanquin,  passes  into  the  courtyard  be- 
hind curtains  so  held  by  her  attendants  as  to  hide 
her  from  the  gaze  of  the  crowd,  enters  her  private 
room  and  changes  her  traveling  dress  for  the  sac- 


62  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

rificial  robes.  Meantime  the  Mikado's  presents 
and  all  the  other  offerings  are  duly  placed  on  the 
tables  and  in  the  various  chapels  prepared  for 
them  and  the  high  officers  of  State  take  their  seats 
within  the  temple  enclosure.  All  the  prescribed 
forms  are  observed  with  scrupulous  care,  and  the 
ritual  is  read.  In  many  services  harpists,  flute- 
players,  singers,  and  dancers  perform  their  several 
tasks.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  services  the  com- 
pany clap  their  hands  and  then  separate.  The 
priestess  changes  her  robes  again  for  her  traveling 
dress,  and  returns  to  her  lodging  in  like  stately 
procession  as  she  came  to  the  shrine. 

The  mirror,  sword,  bow,  and  spear,  which  are 
mentioned  in  the  rituals  as  presents  offered  to  the 
gods  at  the  great  festivals,  doubtless  have  their 
symbolical  significance,  and  like  the  three  divine 
insignia  of  sword,  precious  stone,  and  mirror — the 
regalia  or  symbols  of  Japanese  power  and  glory — 
have  doubtless  their  mythic  connection  with  pre- 
historic traditions;  but  these  belong  to  the  study 
of  Japanese  antiquities  rather  than  to  the  religious 
elements  of  Shinto.1 


1See  the  interesting  article  by  Thomas  R.  H.  McClatchie 
on  "The  Sword  of  Japan,"  in  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Japan,"  vol.  ii,  pp.  50-56. 


CHINESE  INFLUENCE.  63 

19.  Influence  of  China  on  Japanese  Thought. 
So  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  what  may  be 
called  the  original  or  pure  Shinto  cult  as  the  re- 
ligion of  the  ancient  Japanese.  But  it  is  im- 
portant to  observe  that  the  moral  and  religious 
ideas  of  other  peoples  and  other  systems  have 
i'nr  som,_.  two  thousand  years  past  been  affecting 
the  life  and  thought  of  the  Japanese  people.  One 
noteworthy  foreign  influence  came  in  from  China, 
and  as  early  as  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
rrn — perhaps  somewhat  earlier — Chinese  scholars 
made  their  way  into  Japan.  This  was  very  natu- 
ral, for  the  proximity  of  China  favored  inter- 
course between  the  two  nations,  and  Confucian- 
ism was  at  the  beginning  of  our  era  five  hundred 
years  old.  Ancestor-worship  was  common  to  the 
people  of  both  lands,  and  the  arts  and  industries 
of  the  two  countries  might  have  found  affiliation 
in  many  ways  we  can  not  now  determine.  That 
such  a  leavening  Chinese  influence  was  early  in- 
troduced into  Japan  is  simply  matter  of  fact.  The 
Preface  of  Yasumaro,  the  compiler  of  the  most 
ancient  records  of  the  Ko-ji-ki,  shows  the  effect  of 
Chinese  philosophy  in  its  incidental  mention  of 


64  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

"the  Passive  and  Active  Essences"  which  co-ope- 
rated at  the  beginning  of  the  creation;  and  Cham- 
berlain, in  his  Introduction  to  his  English  trans- 
lation of  the  Ko-ji-ki,  observes  that  "at  the  very 
earliest  period  to  which  the  twilight  of  legend 
stretches  back,  Chinese  influence  had  already  be- 
gun to  make  itself  felt  in  these  islands,  communi- 
cating to  the  inhabitants  both  implements  and 
ideas."  Then  it  is  to  be  further  remarked  that 
the  Nihongif  completed  in  720  A.  D.,  although  es- 
sentially a  parallel  chronicle  of  Japanese  tradi- 
tions, is  in  thought  and  style  conspicuously 
Chinese.  It  is  made  in  every  aspect  and  element 
of  its  composition  to  resemble  as  far  as  possible 
a  Chinese  history. 

20.  Influence  of  Buddhism.  But  a  deeper 
and  more  widespread  influence  than  that  of 
anything  of  Chinese  origin  was  the  introduc- 
tion into  Japan  of  Buddhism,  which  was  first 
brought  in  about  A.  D.  552,  but  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  leavening  the  whole  country  until  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century.  It  was  quietly  propa- 
gated by  leaders  of  various  Buddhist  sects  which 
differ  in  minor  practices,  and  slowly  it  gained  as- 


JAPANESE  BUDDHISM.  65 

cendency,  but  its  first  more  notable  triumph  fol- 
lowed the  teaching  of  Kukai,  founder  of  the  Shin- 
gon  sect,  who  so  adapted  Buddhist  doctrines  to 
the   traditional   idt-n>   <>t'   ancestor   worship   as   to 
maintain  that  all  the  Shinto  deities  were  ai'ntars 
or  incarnations  of  Buddha.    With  great  ingenuity 
and  cunning,  a  new  interpretation  was  given  to 
ancient  myths,  and  new  constructions   were  put 
upon  old  beliefs.     The   Shinto  gods,  rites,   cus- 
toms, and  traditions  took  011  a  Buddhist  signifi- 
cance, and  many  of  the  mysteries  of  birth  and  of 
death  were  explained  in  a  manner  so  simple  and 
popular  as  to  commend  them  to  all  who  listened 
to  the  new  teaching.     For  Buddhism  had  already 
learned  in  India  and  in  China  the  clever  art  of 
appropriating  old  beliefs  and  customs  and  of  cloth- 
ing tin-in  with  a  new  and  higher  meaning.     Con- 
fucianism itself  had  already  in  part  prepared  the 
way  for  Buddhism  in  Japan,  and  the  successful 
Buddhist  propagandists  were  wise  enough  to  sup- 
press or  keep  out  of  sight  all  that  might  be  of- 
fensive in  their  system,  and  to  teach  only  such 
forms   of   doctrine  as   could   be  made   attractive 
to  the  masses  of  the  people.     Kukai  thus  suc- 
5 


66  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

ceeded  in  converting  the  Mikado  to  his  new  in- 
terpretations of  the  Shinto  beliefs,  and  the  new 
system  thus  put  forward  received  the  name  "Riyobu 
Shinto,"  which  means  "two  parts/'  or  the  "double 
way  of  the  gods,"  or  the  twofold  divine  teaching. 
So  complete  and  general  did  this  Riyobu  Shinto 
become  in  its  spread  throughout  Japan  that  for 
a  thousand  years  it  dominated  the  civilization  of 
the  Empire.  It  had  its  priests,  its  gorgeous 
temples  and  ritual  services,  its  philosophy,  and  its 
divers  sects,  and  it  is  said  that  there  are  at  least 
twelve  distinct  Buddhist  sects  in  Japan  to-day. 
According  to  Lafcadio  Hearn,  "the  religion  of  the 
Buddha  brought  to  Japan  another  and  a  wider 
humanizing  influence — a  new  gospel  of  tenderness 
— together  with  a  multitude  of  new  beliefs  that 
were  able  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the  old,  in 
spite  of  fundamental  dissimilarity.  In  the  high- 
est meaning  of  the  term,  it  was  a  civilizing  power. 
Besides  teaching  new  respect  for  life,  the  duty  of 
kindness  to  animals  as  well  as  to  all  human  be- 
ings, the  consequences  of  all  present  acts  upon  the 
conditions  of  a  future  existence,  the  duty  of 
resignation  to  pain  as  the  inevitable  result  of  for- 


JAPANESE  BUDDHISM.  67 

gotten  error,  it  actually  gave  to  Japan  the  arts 
and  the  industries  of  China.  Architecture,  paint- 
ing, sculpture,  engraving,  printing,  gardening — in 
short,  every  art  and  industry  that  helped  to  make 
life  beautiful — developed  first  in  Japan  under  Bud- 
dhist teaching."1  To  which  may  well  be  added  the 
following  statement  of  Aston :  "There  was  noth- 
ing in  Shinto  which  could  rival  in  attraction  the 
sculpture,  architecture,  painting,  costumes,  and 
ritual  of  the  foreign  faith.  Its  organization  was 
more  complete  and  effective.  It  presented  ideals 
of  humanity,  charity,  self-abnegation,  and  purity 
far  higher  than  any  previously  known  to  the  Jap- 
anese nation."2 

But  after  a  thousand  years  of  mixture,  who 
can  now  tell  for  certain  just  what  is  original  Shinto 
and  what  is  the  Buddhist  supplement  or  modifica- 
tion? The  Buddhism  of  Japan  is  as  far  from  the 
original  teachings  of  Gautama  as  the  Eonian  Cath- 
olic religion  of  Spain  is  from  the  simple  precepts 
and  practices  of  Christ  and  His  first  apostle*.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  Buddhism  of  China  and  Thibet. 


1- 'Japan:    an    Interpretation,"    p.    208. 
""Shinto,   the  Way  of  the  Gods,"    p.   360. 


68  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

The  Shingon  sect  of  Buddhists  in  Japan,  of  which 
Kukai  was  the  founder,  has  taken  up  into  itself 
many  ideas  which  are  neither  purely  Buddhist  nor 
purely  Shintoist.  Superstitions  alien  to  both  cults 
are  likely  to  have  found  their  way  among  the 
people  and  to  have  exerted  influences  on  the  popu- 
lar cult,  and  no  man  is  now  able  to  point  out  their 
origin  or  their  history.1 

21.  Revival  of  Pure  Shinto.  We  are  not  here 
concerned,  however,  with  Japanese  Buddhism. 
Our  inquiry  is  after  the  facts  and  the  significance 
of  the  essential  Shinto  cult.  A  great  and  remark- 

jm^mijiini  ii"  nmn>i***~~~*~^ 

able  revival  of  the  older  Shinto  began  near  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  persisted 
with  great  success  for  more  than  one  hundred  years. 
The  most  distinguished  scholars  of  Japan  were  the 
chief  leaders  in  this  reform.  We  have  already  had 
occasion  to  mention  the  names  of  the  three  most 
famous  men  among  them — Mabuchi,  Motowori, 
and  Hirata.  These  by  their  expositions  of  the 


*It  is  admitted  by  all  writers  on  Japan  that  the  practical 
ethics  of  Confucianism  has  from  the  first  largely  nullified  the 
more  subtle  and  dreamy  elements  of  Buddhism.  The  common 
sense  of  the  Japanese  people,  in  spite  of  all  peculiarities,  has 
made  it  necessary  for  Buddhism  to  adjust  itself  to  the  popular 
rnind. 


REVIVAL  OF  SHINTO.  C9 

ancient  scriptures  and  traditions  turned  the  tide 
of  popular  thought  against  Buddhism  and  Chinese 
philosophy.  It  is  quite  interesting  to  note  in  some 
of  their  writings  the  antipathy  and  hostility  to 
Chinese  teachings.  Mutowuri  had  a  remarkable 
answer  to  those  critics  who  say  that  Shintoism 
knows  no  moral  code.  He  declared  that  all  a 

(^^•••••••i^BMM^HBH  ^MM •• • B^ • "™™ 

loyal  Japanese  subject  was  concerned  to  do  was 
simply  to  nl icy  the  .Mikado,  whether  his  commands 
were  right  or  wrong.  He  maintained  that  "morals 
were  invented  by  the  Chinese  because  they  were 
an  immoral  people;  but  in  Japan  there  was  no 
necessity  for  any  system  of  morals,  as  every  Jap- 
anese acted  aright  if  he  only  consulted  his  own 
heart1  Whatever  we  may  think  or  say  of  such 
self-complacency,  it  accords  well  with  Japanese  re- 
ligion, mythology,  and  history,  and  it  is  a  simple 
fact  to  be  noted  that  in  1871  Buddhism  in  Japan 
was  disestablished  and  disendowed,  and  the  old 
Shinto  was  declared  to  be  the  national  religion. 
Percival  Lowell  observes  that  this  reinstatement 


JS'atow,  in  "Transactions  of  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan," 
vol.  ii,  p.  121.  Compare  the  statement  of  Malmchi  as  given 
in  Satow's  paper  on  "The  Revival  of  Pure  Shin-tau,"  in  Ap- 
pendix to  vol.  iii  of  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of 
Japan,"  p.  14. 


70  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

of  the  Mikado  and  the  old  national  faith  is  "a 
curious  instance  of  a  religious  revival  due  to  ar- 
chaeological, not  to  religious  zeal.1  But  while  the 
old  Shinto  is  at  present  the  official  cult  of  Japan, 
it  appears  to  have  little  life  or  force.  Japanese 
Buddhism  is  said  to  be  showing  signs  of  renewed 
activity,  and  is  likely  to  prove  a  powerful  antag- 
onist of  Christianity.  It  is  certainly  a  question 
of  vital  importance  to  the  future  civilization  of 
Japan  which  of  these  mighty  rivals  shall  gain 
ascendency  over  the  popular  mind. 

22.  Esoteric  Shinto.  Shinto  did  not  continue 
very  long  to  hold  its  newly  proclaimed  status  as 
the  State  religion.  Its  own  most  devoted  ad- 
herents and  leaders  felt  that  its  highest  interests 
would  be  best  served  without  official  and  gov- 
ernmental prestige.  A  wise  and  prudent  State 
policy  determined  that  its  permanence  and  suc- 
cess should  be  left  to  care  for  themselves  and 
to  depend  upon  the  merits  of  its  teachings  and 
its  historic  and  popular  hold  upon  the  national, 
the  communal,  and  the  family  life.  As  a  cult 
it  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  civilization  of  the  em- 
pire, and  its  pilgrims  swarm  along  the  highways 

i"The  Soul  of  the  Far  East,"  p.   166. 


ESOTERIC  SHINTO.  71 

of  travel  and  at  the  historic  shrines.  They  are 
found  journeying  to  the  summits  of  sacred  moun- 
tains, and  there  performing  esoteric  rites  which  in- 
duce mystic  divine  possession.  The  performance  of 
such  mystic  rites  and  incantations  seems  to  be  no 
modern  innovation.  It  may  have  its  connections 
with  Buddhist  counting  of  rosaries,  and  possibly 
other  foreign  influences  have  helped  to  cultivate  its 
somewhat  mantic  forms,  but  its  origin  is  from  a  re- 
mote antiquity.  This  "esoteric  Shinto"  is  essen- 
tially akin  to  that  self-induced  religious  fervor 
which  exhibits  itself  in  many  lands  and  in  connec- 
tion with  various  cults,  and  is  often  seen  among  the 
Mohammedan  dancing  and  howling  dervishes.  Its 
existence  and  its  practices  in  Japan  refute  the 
notion  of  those  who  would  deny  to  Shinto  the  char- 
acter of  a  real  religion.1  The  excrescences  and  ex- 
travagancies of  religious  fervor  must  have  some 
sort  of  a  religion  to  inspire  them. 

23.  Mingling  of  Shinto,  Confucianism,  and 
Buddhism.  The  noteworthy  fact  that  Shinto,  Con- 
fucianism, and  Buddhism  have  for  more  than  a 


1For  interesting  information  on  this  mystic  phase  of 
Shinto  see  the  articles  of  Percival  Lowell  on  "Esoteric  Shinto," 
in  "Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,"  vols.  xxi 
and  xxii. 


72  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

thousand  years  mixed  with  each  other  in  Japan 
demonstrates  the  susceptibility  of  the  Japanese  peo- 
ple to  foreign  influence  and  teaching,  and  their  nat- 
ural hospitality  toward  the  various  religious  cults. 
The  ethical  teachings  of  Confucius  prepared  the 
way  for  Buddhism,  and,  in  spite  of  antipathy  and 
wars  between  the  nations,  maintain  a  powerful 
hold  upon  the  thoughtful  Japanese  to-day.  Still 
more  remarkable  is  it  that  millions  of  the  Jap- 
anese appear  to  accept  both  Shintoism  and  Bud- 
dhism, and  good  Shintoists  and  good  Buddhists 
may  be  found  worshiping  in  some  temples  at  one 
and  the  same  time.1  A  Japanese  scholar,  speaking 
at  the  Chicago  "Parliament  of  Religions"  on  the 
"Future  of  Religion  in  Japan/'  declared  that  the 
three  systems  named  "are  not  only  living  together 

111  The  gods  of  Japan,"  writes  Gulick,  "are  innumerable 
in  theory  and  multitudinous  in  practice.  Not  only  are  there 
gods  of  goodness,  but  also  gods  of  lust  and  of  evil,  to  whom 
robbers  and  harlots  may  pray  for  success  and  blessing."  But 
in  all  this  multitudinous  pantheon  there  is  no  one  Supreme 
Deity.  "There  is  no  word  in  the  Japanese  language  corre- 
sponding to  the  English  term  God.  The  nearest  approach  to 
it  are  the  Confucian  terms  Jo-tei,  'Supreme  Emperor;'  Ten, 
'Heaven,'  and  Ten-tei,  'Heavenly  Emperor;'  but  all  of  these 
terms  are  Chinese ;  they  are  therefore  of  late  appearance  in 
Japan,  and  represent  rather  conceptions  of  educated  and  Con- 
fucian classes  than  the  ideas  of  the  masses." — "Evolution  of. 
the  Japanese,"  p.  311. 


ROMANISM  IN  JAPAN.  73 

on  friendly  terms  with  one  another,  but,  in  fact, 
they  are  blended  together  in  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple. One  and  the  same  Japanese  is  at  once  a  Shin- 
toist,  a  Confucianist,  and  a  Buddhist.  Our  religion 
may  be  likened  to  a  triangle.  One  angle  is  Shinto- 
ism,  another  is  Confucianism,  and  a  third  is  Bud- 
dhism, all  of  which  make  up  the  religion  of  the 
«^»~»-.-—.  »,«._,_.»^»,...»—~-»— —•»-•-,..  *• 

ordinary  Japanese.  Shintoism  furnishes  the  ob- 
jects, Confucianism  offers  the  rules  of  life,  while 
Buddhism  supplies  the  way  of  salvation."1 

24.  Roman  Catholicism  in  Japan.  We  must 
not  omit  altogether  a  notice  of  the  introduction  of 
Roman  Catholic  Christianity  into  Japan  about  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  in  1549 
that  the  famous  Jesuit,  Francis  Xavier,  landed  at 
Kagoshima,  and  began  his  marvelous  missionary 
work  through  Japanese  interpreters,  and  in  two 
years  of  strenuous  toil  he  succeeded  in  winning 
many  converts  from  all  classes  of  the  people.  Fifty 
years  thereafter  the  Christian  converts  throughout 
the  country  are  said  to  have  numbered  nearly  a 

ll'The  World's  Parliament  of  Religions,"  vol.  ii,  p.  1282. 
We  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  modern  Shintoism  has 
its  sects,  as  well  as  Buddhism.  There  is  the  sect  called 
"Ten-Ri-Kyo"  ("Heaven-Reason-Teaching").  Also  the  Kuro- 
zumi  sect,  putting  noteworthy  emphasis  on  morality. 


74  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

million.  But  the  Jesuit  habit  and  policy  of  med- 
dling with  affairs  of  State,  their  intolerance  of 
other  cults,  and  at  length  their  crusade  against  the 
ancient  national  faith  and  their  burning  of  Bud- 
dhist temples  and  slaughter  of  Buddhist  priests, 
aroused  the  bitter  reaction  and  bloody  persecutions, 
which,  after  some  forty  years  of  struggle,  suc- 
ceeded in  obliterating  every  public  sign  of  Chris- 
tianity from  every  province  of  the  empire.  And 
for  over  two  hundred  years  Japan  closed  her  doors 
to  all  foreign  influences  and  appeals.  It  was  not 
until  1873  that  the  edicts  against  Christianity 
were  withdrawn.  Of  the  Protestant  missionary 
movements  in  the  island  empire  since  that  date, 
it  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  essay  to  speak. 

25.  Present  Religious  Indifference.  Much  is 
said  nowadays  about  the  apparent  religious  in- 
difference of  the  Japanese.  Some  writers  seem  to 
think  that  the  Japanese  and  the  Chinese  people 

-1-  •W*B«Ms«~  1  -L 

are  alike  inferior  and  defective  in  religious  nature. 
Mr.  Gulick,  in  his  "Evolution  of  the  Japanese," 
reports  Marquis  Ito,  Japan's  most  illustrious 
statesman,  as  having  said:  "I  regard  religion  it- 
self as  quite  unnecessary  for  a  nation's  life ;  science 


CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCE.  75 

is  far  above  superstition,  and  what  is  religion — 
Buddhism  or  Christianity — but  superstition,  and 
therefore  a  possible  source  of  weakness  to  a  nation  ? 
I  do  not  regret  the  tendency  to  free  thought  and 
atheism,  which  is  almost  universal  in  Japan,  be- 
cause I  do  not  regard  it  as  a  source  of  danger  to 

the  community."    And  yet  this  same  distinguished 

• 

statesman  is  reported  on  the  same  page  (288)  to 
have  given  utterance  to  the  following  much  more 
recent  statement:  "The  only  true  civilization  is 
that  which  rests  on  Christian  principles,  and  conse- 
quently, as  Japan  must  attain  her  civilization  on 
these  principles,  those  young  men  who  receive 
Christian  education  will  be  the  main  factors  in  the 
development  of  future  Japan/5  Possibly  these  two 
discrepant  statements  may  be  reconciled  by  suppos- 
ing that,  in  the  first  case,  Ito's  thought  was  turned 
especially  to  the  superstitions  and  temporary 
phases  incident  to  all  religious  cults,  and  in  hi* 
later  remark  he  spoke  of  Christianity  as  somehow 
synonymous  with  Western  civilization.  But  in  any 
case  it  would  seem  that  one  who  deems  the  Jap- 
anese either  irreligious,  or  non-religious,  or  defi- 
cient in  religious  sense,  ought  to  explain  the  mani- 


76  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

fold  facts  of  the  Shinto  cult,  such  as  the  "god 
shelf/'  the  ancestral  tablets,  the  daily  offerings, 
and  the  family  worship  in  almost  every  household 
of  that  Eastern  island-empire.  What  mean  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  white-robed  pilgrims  who 
annually  visit  the  numerous  sacred  shrines?  And 
is  there  no  element  of  religion  in  the  devout  pa- 
triotism that  is  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  life  and  all 
that  men  hold  dear  for  the  faith  and  inheritance 
of  their  beloved  "central  land  of  Eeed-Plains" 
given  long  ago  to  the  care  of  the  "Sovran  Grand- 
child" by  the  celestial  deities? 

It  is  only  a  one-sided  concept  of  religion,  and 
a  too  prevalent  failure  to  distinguish  between  its 
local  temporary  phases  and  its  deeper  essentials  as 
grounded  in  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  that  have 
led  superficial  observers  to  deny  the  profound  re- 
ligious element  in  the  Shinto  and  Buddhist  wor- 
ship of  Japan.  If  Paul,  waiting  at  Athens,  and 
beholding  the  city  full  of  idols,  could  truly  say, 
"I  perceive,  0  Athenians,  that  in  all  things  ye  are 
very  religious,"  just  as  truly  may  we  say,  in  view 
of  the  195,000  temples  and  the  innumerable  deities 
of  the  Shinto  cult,  that  the  Japanese  are  exceed- 
ingly religious. 


FAMILY  RELIGION.  77 

Let  me  add  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Gulick  him- 
self, who  spent  years  in  the  country:  "The  uni- 
versality of  the  tokens  of  family  religion,  and  the 
constant  and  loving  care  bestowed  upon  them,  are 
striking  testimony  to  the  universality  of  religion 
in  Japan.  The  pathos  of  life  is  often  revealed  hy 
the  family  devotion  of  the  mother  to  these  silent 
representatives  of  divine  beings,  and  departed  an- 
cestors or  children.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 

•/ 

that,  so  far  as  external  appearances  go,  the  average 
home  in  Japan  is  far  more  religious  than  the  aver- 
age home  in  enlightened  England  or  America,  es- 
pecially when  compared  with  such  as  have  no 
family  worship,  There  may  be  a  genuine  religious 
life  in  these  Western  homes,  but  it  does  not  appear 
to  the  casual  visitor.  Yet  no  casual  visitor  can 
enter  a  Japanese  home,  without  seeing  at  once  the 
evidences  of  some  sort  of  religious  life."  x 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  in  the  history  and 


'Gulick's  "Evolution  of  the  Japanese,"  p.  294.  What- 
ever may  be  the  defects  of  Japanese  character  in  general,  it  is 
common  for  nearly  all  travelers  who  have  visited  the  country 
and  studied  the  habits  of  the  people  at  their  homes,  to  speak 
of  them  as  mild,  courteous,  cleanly,  frugal,  intelligent,  quick 
to  learn,  and  gifted  with  a  genius  for  imitation.  Their  sol- 
diers have  proved  themselves  a  match  for  the  most  renowned 
warriors,  and  are  marvelously  apt  to  make  the  most  of  op- 
portunities. 


78  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

evolution  of  religion,  where  there  has  been  obvious 
evolution,  periods  of  long  peace  and  repose,  marked 
by  formalism,  skepticism,  and  indifference  to  re- 
ligious obligation,  are  generally  followed  by  great 
revivals  and  reforms.  Some  new  light  breaks  in; 
some  great  prophet  appears;  new  ideas  and  hopes 
take  hold  on  the  popular  mind,  and  thereupon  a 
new  era  opens  in  civilization.  The  renaissance  in 
Japan  of  the  last  fifty  years  may  be  the  prelude 
to  an  epoch-making  revival  of  the  Orient 

26.  Concluding  Observations  and  Suggestions. 
Our  study  of  Shinto  has  led  us  over  a  somewhat 
unfamiliar  field  of  thought.  The  mythology  and 
the  records  of  the  Ko-ji-ki  and  the  Nihongi  are 
far  apart  from  all  our  Western  legends  and  ideals 
of  the  early  world,  and  in  great  part  seem  like  mon- 
strosities of  fantastic  speculation.  It  is  affirmed 
by  some  that  the  Japanese  people  have  been  halting 
for  two  millenniums  in  a  state  of  childhood,  receiv- 
ing nothing  from  Confucianism  or  from  Buddhism 

*— ^ 

to  quicken  or  change  the  national  life ;  but  with  the 
introduction  of  Western  thought  and  enterprise 
they  have  suddenly  leaped  into  comparative  ma- 
turity, and  their  new  departure  from  a  dreamy  past 


DEFECTS  OF  SHINTO.  79 

is  likely  to  astonish  the  whole  world.  It  is  very 
obvious  that  the  introduction  of  modern  science 
into  her  thousands  of  elementary  schools  must 
sooner  or  later  undermine  all  faith  in  the  tradi- 
tional cosmogony,  and,  along  with  that,  a  whole 
world  of  notions  bound  up  with  the  Shinto  cult 
must  needs  be  overthrown.  Eminent  Japanese 
scholars  say  that  Western  learning  has  sounded  the 
knell  and  signed  the  death  warrant  of  the  ancient 
religion  of  their  island-world. 

It  is  for  us  very  easy,  in  the  light  of  our 
New  Testament  revelation,  to  point  out  defects  in 
the  Shinto  system.  Some  four  or  five  of  these 
we  may  briefly  mention  as  matters  which  a 
Christian  missionary  should  keep  in  view  as 
evincing  the  need  of  preaching  among  these  peo- 
ple the  deeper  demands  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ.  (1)  The  first  and  fundamental  defect  in 
Shinto  as  a  religious  system  is  its  lack  of  any 
clear  or  helpful  concept  of  one  God  and  Father 
of  all.  The  doctrine  of  God  is  fundamental  in 
any  cult,  and  where  the  idea  is  vague  and  im- 
perfect the  entire  system  of  doctrine  and  practice 
must  needs  possess  an  element  of  uncertainty 


80  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

and  weakness.  (2)  Another  defect  is  its  want 
of  a  clear  concept  of  sin  as  a  moral  disease  of 
the  heart.  The  Japanese  mind  needs  to  be 
turned  inward  to  a  deeper  sense  of  the  real  sinful- 
ness  of  sin.  (3)  Another  serious  fault  in  the 
Japanese  civilization  is  its  low  estimate  of  woman- 
hood. Here  as  in  China  woman  has  not  attained 
her  proper  sphere.  She  is  subjected  to  three  forms 
of  obedience,  which  in  actual  life  are  too  abject 
for  her  higher  development — she  must  bow  to  her 
parents,  to  her  husband,  and  to  her  son  in  a  manner 
that  involves  what  we  should  call  a  humiliating 
form  of  domestic  slavery.  Japan  needs  the  prac- 
tice of  a  monogamy  of  the  highest  Christian  type 
in  order  to  rectify  this  inferior  and  one-sided  view 

V 

of  the  male  and  female  constitution  of  humanity. 
(4)  There  is  also  in  Japan  an  apparently  low  es- 
timate of  human  life.  It  is  probably  due  largely 
to  the  communal  and  feudal  system  which  has  for 
a  long  time  ruled  the  people.  The  individual  is 
nothing ;  the  community  is  everything.  These  and 
other  defects  show  our  grounds  for  believing  that 
the  old  order  and  system  must  sometime  change. 
But  it  is  no  strange  or  unheard  of  thing  in  our 


OLD  ORDER  CHANGING.  81 

world  for  an  old  order  to  change  and  give  place  to 
something  new  and  higher.  Western  civilization 
has  seen  not  a  few  examples  of  such  changes ;  hut, 
as  touching  religious  evolution,  what  a  monu- 
mental example  we  have  in  the  transition  from  the 
Old  Testament  Judaism  to  the  New  Testament 
kingdom  of  heaven !  The  main  contents  and  scope 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  point  out  the  fact 
that  the  old  covenant,  with  its  sanctuary  and 
altars  and  tables  and  sacrifices  and  priests,  could 
not  make  their  worshipers  perfect.  Notwithstand- 
ing its  long  and  glorious  history,  it  waxed  old, 
and  when  the  Epistle  was  written  it  was  nigh  unto 
vanishing  away  (Heb.  viii,  13).  It  did  pass  away 
and  give  place  to  a  more  spiritual  cult,  the  gospel  of 
peace  on  earth  and  universal  love.  May  not  the  na- 
tional cult  of  Japan — with  its  faith  in  the  unseen, 
its  rituals  of  purification,  its  concepts  of  a  heavenly 
ancestry,  and  its  intimations  of  deification  after 
death — be  made  to  give  way  before  a  superior 
cult  that  may  have  the  wisdom  to  offer  a  higher 
and  more  rational  presentation  of  the  essential 
truths  embodied  in  the  Shinto  worship?  What- 
ever men  may  think  or  say  about  the  mystical  and 
6 


82  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

legendary  elements  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  no 
one  familiar  with  the  literatures  of  the  nations  can 
hesitate  for  a  moment  to  acknowledge  the  immense 
superiority  of  the  Old  Testament  law  and  prophets 
and  psalms  over  the  contents  of  the  Ko-jir-ki  and 
the  Nihongi.  If,  then,  the  covenants  and  tne 
rituals  of  Judaism  waxed  old  and  vanished  away 
before  the  clearer  light  and  truth  of  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ,  much  more  should  we  expect  that 
the  same  superior  "Light  of  the  world"  must 
needs,  sometime,  supersede  and  supplant  the  rit- 
uals of  the  Shinto  cult. 

Accordingly,  I  shall  venture  to  specify  sundry 
elements  of  ancient  Shinto,  which,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  Jesus,  are  not  to  be  destroyed,  but  rather 
fulfilled,  in  the  higher  and  more  universal  truths 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Fulfilled,  I  say;  for 
I  look  upon  all  the  religious  longings,  and  prayers, 
and  penitential  psalms  of  the  nations,  and  their 
inquiries  after  the  Unseen  and  Eternal,  as  so  many 
f  oregleams  of  a  coming  Light,  destined  to  enlighten 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world. 

We  have  seen  that  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
aspects  of  the  Shinto  cult  is  its  ceremonial  of  the 


IDEAS  OF  PURITY.  83 

Great  Purification.  Physical  pollution  of  any  kind 
is  abhorrent  to  the  Japanese.  The  touch  of  a  dead 
body,  contact  with  a  foul  disease,  failure  to  wash 
and  keep  one's  person  clean,  are  regarded  as  of  the 
nature  of  calamities.  "\Ve  know  that  there  was 
much  in  the  practices  and  traditions  of  the  Jewish 
elders  that  closely  resembled  these  Shinto  ideas  of 
pollution.  The  Pharisees  and  scribes  found  fault 
with  Jesus  because  of  His  indifference  to  their 
"washings  of  cups,  pots,  and  brazen  vessels/'  But 
cleanliness,  we  all  admit,  is  a  near  neighbor  of 
godliness.  St.  Paul  said,  "Glorify  God  in  your 
body;"  for  he  maintained  that  "your  body  is  a 
sanctuary  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  is  in  you." 
Jesus  found  no  fault  with  Jewish  ablutions,  and 
enjoined  the  highest  personal  purity.  But  He 
pointed  out  the  deeper  lesson  that  the  more  hor- 
rible defilement  of  man  is  a  pollution  of  the  heart. 
"For  from  within,"  He  said,  "out  of  the  heart  of 
man,  evil  thoughts  proceed,  fornications,  thefts, 
murders,  adulteries,  covetings,  wickedness,  deceit, 
lasciviousness,  an  evil  eye,  railing,  pride,  foolish- 
ness:— all  these  evil  things  proceed  from  within, 
and  defile  the  man."  This,  then,  is  one  fun- 


84  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

damental  truth  which,  the  Shinto  worshiper 
should  learn  from  the  teachings  of  our  Lord.  The 
clean  body  and  the  pure  white  robes  are  eminently 
proper  and  beautiful  in  their  way ;  but  they  should 
symbolize  the  consciousness  of  a  pure  heart,  and 
a  blameless  life  that  keeps  itself  "unspotted  from 
the  world."  Shinto  purification  needs  the  supple- 
ment of  a  deeper  knowledge  of  spiritual  defilement 
in  order  to  a  deeper  knowledge  of  purity. 

More  exalted  than  any  mere  forms  of  purifica- 

•'••  -L 

tion,  or  rituals  of  worship,  is  that  notion  of  a  living 
Presence  concealed  in  all  phenomena.  There  has 
been  and  is  to-day  among  all  peoples  a  belief  in 
many  invisible  spirits  that  have  some  sort  of  power 
over  the  clouds,  the  winds,  the  waters,  the  earth, 
and  all  its  teeming  growths.  We  call  it  Animism, 
Shamanism,  and  in  a  certain  specific  form,  Fetish- 
ism. Belief  in  a  countless  multitude  of  spirits 
who  can  influence  the  elements  about  us  for  good  or 
for  evil,  is  firmly  rooted  in  all  the  ancient  peoples 
of  Eastern  Asia,  from  India  to  Japan.  We  have 
seen  how  deep  a  hold  it  had  upon  the  earliest 
Shinto  cult,  and  the  later  influences  of  Confucian- 
ism and  Buddhism  in  Japan  have  tended  rather 


TRUTH  IX  AXIMISM.  85 

to  strengthen  than  to  suppress  it  in  the  popular 
mind. 

These  animistic  conceptions  have  played  a  note-- 
worthy part  in  connection  with  most.,  if  not  all, 
the  religions  of  mankind.  When  combined  with 
a  groveling  fear  of  the  spirits,  and  with  the  prac- 
tice of  magic  rites  and  incantations  to  propitiate 
them  as  so  many  evil  demons,  the  belief  has  run 
into  the  lowest  forms  of  superstition.  But  is 
there  no  element  of  truth  in  Animism?  Why 
should  we  speak  disparagingly  of  the  old  Japanese 
worshiper  -  hearing  the  voices  of  unseen  spirits 
in  the  moaning  winds,  in  the  sounding  waterfalls, 
in  the  rolling  thunder  ?  Why  should  he  not  adore 
the  Sun  as  the  heavenly  Benefactor,  and  see  in 
waving  trees  and  blooming  flowers  and  drifting 
clouds  the  presence  and  activity  of  beings,  per- 
haps sometimes  a  Being  Supernatural?  One- 
sided, defective  puerile  notions  controlled,  no 
doubt,  his  thinking,  but  the  one  supreme  and  fun- 
damental fact  was  that  he  felt  himself  in  the 
presence  of  the  Supernatural.  And  that  primeval 
concept  is  the  one  most  essential  truth  of  all  re- 
ligion. We  have  only  to  divest  it  of  sundry  errant, 


86  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

non-essential  interpretations  in  order  to  come  face 
to  face  with  the  grandest,  noblest,  and  most  affect- 
ing theism,  and  monotheism  as  well.  For  mono- 
theism finds  its  most  advanced  exposition  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  universal  immanence  of  God, — one 
God,  the  Eternal  Spirit,  in  all,  through  all,  over 
all.  How  far  from  such  a  concept  of  universal 
Animism  was  the  old  Hebrew  psalmist,  who  sang 
of  Jehovah  "laying  the  beams  of  His  chambers  in 
the  waters,  making  the  clouds  His  chariot,  walking 
upon  the  wings  of  the  wind,  sending  forth  springs 
into  the  valleys,  causing  the  grass  to  grow  upon  the 
mountains,"  and  receiving  tribute  of  praises  from 
the  "sea-monsters  and  all  deeps;  fire  and  hail, 
snow  and  vapor;  stormy  wind  performing  His 
word;  mountains  and  all  hills;  fruitful  trees  and 
all  cedars;  beasts  and  all  cattle;  creeping  things 
and  flying  birds."  To  such  a  worshiper  the 
world  was  all  alive  with  God.  And  Jesus  added 
an  intensity  and  an  affecting  beauty  to  this  whole 
concept  of  an  immanent  God  when  He  said :  "My 
Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  and  "not 
one  sparrow  falleth  on  the  ground  without  your 
Father."  I  can  conceive  no  Animism  and  no 


DIVIXE  IMMANENCE.  87 

Supernaturalism  more  minute  or  more  adorable 
than  the  ever  acting  and  ever  continuous  presence 
of  an  unseen  but  all  observant  "Father  in  the 
heavens."  The  heavens  in  which  He  dwells  are 
above,  below,  within,  and  all  around  us. 

And  this  is  the  higher  Animism  which  ought 
to  be  welcomed  by  the  Shinto  pilgrims  of  Japan  as 
the  beautiful  fulfilling  of  their  ancient  dreams. 
Not  so  many  gods,  not  a  multitude  of  unfriendly 
spirits  that  need  propitiation  by  our  gifts  of  food 
and  clothing,  but  OXE  Heavenly  Father,  immanent 
in  every  plant  that  grows  and  in  every  dewdrop  on 
the  flowers,  forever  working  for  our  good,  caring 
for  every  birdling,  and  numbering  the  very  hairs 
of  our  head. 

With  such  a  monotheistic  conception  of  the 
world  all  mythologic  and  polytheistic  notions  of 
deity  and  the  rule  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  must 
sooner  or  later  disappear.  Japanese  scholars  of 
high  rank  are  telling  their  people  and  others  that 
the  modern  Western  learning  has  already  destroyed 
the  cosmogony  of  the  Shinto  cult.  What  is  now 
most  needed  is  a  class  of  teachers  straightforward 
and  broad  enough  to  show  these  people  a  nobler 


88  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

and  truer  concept  of  the  world.  The  new  concep- 
tion need  have  no  conflict  with  the  belief  that  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  are  all  about  us,  and  are  deeply 
interested  in  us  still.  The  family  cult  may  adjust 
itself  to  the  new  and  higher  doctrines,  and  lose 
none  of  the  beauty  and  tenderness  and  sanctity 
which  old  affection  connects  with  the  domestic 
tablets  of  the  honored  and  beloved  dead.  Herein 
the  new  faith  is  to  fulfill  rather  than  destroy  the 
ancient  rites  of  love.  Such  a  monotheistic  cult 
will  find  no  reason  or  occasion  to  commit  the 
blunder  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  and  seek  in- 
terference with  the  government  of  the  land.  The 
Mikado  may  still  command  the  reverence  and  the 
love  of  the  people  and  be  rationally  honored  as  a 
child  of  heaven.  Loyal  Christians  do  that  under 
every  form  of  government.  "Fear  God ;  honor  the 
king ;  for  there  is  no  power  but  God,  and  the  pow- 
ers that  be  are  ordained  of  God ;  for  they  are  the 
ministers  of  God's  service ;" — these  are  the  precepts 
of  the  earliest  apostolic  gospel,  and  the  modern 
missionary  of  Christ  is  bound  to  observe  and  teach 
them.  He  should  exhibit  common  sense  and  dis- 
cretion in  foreign  politics,  recognize  and  honor  the 


THREE  COMMANDMENTS.  89 

legitimate  power,  and  like  the  Great  Teacher, 
"render  unto  Ca3sar  the  things  that  are  Cesar's, 
and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's." 

The  Shinto  cult  is  essentially  a  religion  of  race 
and  national  patriotism.  It  is  the  secret  of  Jap- 
anese heroism  and  sacrifice  in  the  day  of  battle. 
He  counts  it  sweet  and  glorious  to  die  for  his 
country.  He  is  not  his  own;  he  belongs  to  the 
State.  We  are  told  that  the  three  principal  com- 
mandments of  the  public  and  official  Shinto  faith 
are  these : 

1.  "Thou  shalt  honor  the  gods  and  love  thy 
country. 

2  "Thou  shalt  clearly  understand  the  principles 
of  Heaven,  and  the  duty  of  man. 

3.  "Thou  shalt  revere  the  emperor  as  thy 
sovereign,  and  obey  the  will  of  his  court." 

Surely  those  principles  and  precepts  are  ca- 
pable of  easy  adjustment  to  any  form  of  national 
government,  and  the  ethics  of  Christianity  are 
in  fundamental  accord  with  their  essential  claims. 

But  how  can  the  Christian  religion,  with  its 
monotheistic  worship,  adjust  itself  without  an- 
tagonism to  the  ancestor  worship  of  Japan  ?  Many 


90  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

seem  to  think  that  in  this  particular  there  must 
needs  be  an  irrepressible  conflict,  for  the  worship 
of  ancestors  is  central  and  fundamental  in  the 
Shinto  faith,  and  the  most  precious  and  hallowed 
bond  that  holds  the  family,  the  community,  and  the 
State  together. 

In  this  matter  we  do  well  to  observe  a  number 
of  relevant  facts.  Ancestor  worship  has  existed 
in  a  variety  of  forms  among  many  peoples.  It  has 
undergone  various  modifications  in  different  coun- 
tries, and  it  appears  to  have  ceased  among  some 
peoples  and  given  place  to  other  ideas  and  forms  of 
worship.  The  Japanese  conception  is  that  their 
Mikado  and  all  his  people  are  offspring  of  the  gods, 
and  each  one,  when  he  dies,  becomes  a  deity,  but 
does  not  cease  to  have  interest  in  the  relatives  and 
companions  of  his  earthly  life.  During  the  siege 
of  Port  Arthur,  Togo  sent  the  Mikado  a  message 
in  which  he  expressed  the  thought  that  the  patri- 
otic manes  of  the  fallen  heroes  might  hover  over 
the  battlefield  for  a  long  time  and  give  unseen 
protection  to  the  Imperial  forces.  Such  a  faith 
and  such  inspiration  from  the  dead  are  things 
which  a  proud  nation  does  not  easily  let  die. 


ONE  FATHER  OF  ALL.  91 

But  may  we  not  approach  the  devotees  of  such 
a  faith  with  the  words  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophet : 
"Have  we  not  all  one  father?  Hath  not  one  God 
created  us?"  Ye  think  your  honored  ancestors 
still  live,  and  love  to  think  of  you  and  aid  you  from 
their  higher  sphere;  is  it  not  also  just  as  true  of 
the  ancestors  and  heroes  of  other  lands  and  peo- 
ples ?  You  have  learned  that  your  beautiful  "land 
of  the  reed-plains  and  the  fresh  rice-ears"  is  only 
a  very  small  portion  of  the  world  of  men.  Have 
these  broader  lands  and  more  numerous  peoples 
sprung  from  other  and  greater  gods  than  yours? 
May  it  not  rather  be  that,  as  there  is  only  one  sun 
to  shine  on  all  this  habitable  world,  so  there  is 
one  Heavenly  Father  of  us  all?  Then  we  are  all 
offspring  of  one  Supreme  God  and  we  should  all  be 
brethren.  Our  ancestors  and  dear  kindred  who 
have  passed  out  of  our  sight  should  lose  no  pl;uv 
in  our  affection  by  this  larger  thought.1 

*In  his  "Evolution  of  the  Japanese"  (p.  75)  Gulick 
quotes  from  the  Japan  Mail  (of  September  30,  1899)  a  num- 
ber of  special  instructions  to  be  given  to  the  pupils  in  the 
Japanese  schools  touching  their  behavior  toward  foreigners. 
One  of  the  orders  reads  thus:  "Since  all  human  beings  are 
brothers  and  sisters,  there  is  no  reason  for  fearing  foreigners. 
Treat  them  as  equals  and  act  uprightly  in  all  your  dealings 
with  them."  Such  instruction  should  surely,  in  time,  en- 
lurge  the  world-conception  of  the  Shiutoist. 


92  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

By  some  such  suggestions,  and  by  such  friendly 
and  persuasive  appeal  to  larger  truths,  it  would 
seem  that  a  higher  and  purer  faith  may  commend 
itself  to  the  adherents  of  Shinto,  without  provoking 
their  hostility,  and  without  the  compromise  of 
any  essential  Christian  truth.  As  surely  as  self- 
evidencing  science  wins  her  onward  way  among  the 
nations,  so  surely  will  self-evidencing  truths  of 
religion  win  the  hearts  of  men.  We  are  familiar 
with  the  Christian  congregations  singing : 

"Faith  of  our  fathers,  holy  faith! 
We  will  be  true  to  thee  till  death." 

But  Christian  and  Shintoist  should  note  the  fact 
that  the  fathers  and  the  sons  are  greater  than  the 
faith.  As  "the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and 
not  man  for  the  Sabbath,"  so  the  faith,  the  forms 
of  worship,  the  aesthetic  arts,  the  culture,  the  learn- 
ing, and  all  the  ennobling  elements  of  the  highest 
civilization  are  made  for  man,  not  man  for  them. 
Being,  therefore,  not  an  end  in  themselves,  but  a 
means  to  the  attainment  of  some  higher  boon,  they 
must  all  be  judged  according  to  the  broad  and 
noble  proverb :  "Whatsoever  things  are  true,  what- 
soever things  are  honorable,  whatsoever  things  are 


HOPEFUL  FUTURE.  93 

just,  whatsoever  tilings  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report ;  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  take 
account  of  these  things"  (Phil.  4:8). 

It  may  be  that  ancestral  shrines  will  become 
more  sacred  and  more  heavenly  when  lighted  with 
the  glimmer  of  immortal  hopes  of  blessed  reunion 
in  the  unseen  world,  and  our  forms  and  manner 
of  honoring  father  and  mother  and  friends  that 
pass  out  from  our  homes  may  be  safely  left  to 
adjust  themselves  to  an  uplifting  faith  that  lives 
in  the  heart  and  ever  longs  for  all  that  is  holiest 
and  best. 

The  whole  world  looks  with  admiration  upon 
that  island-empire  of  the  Orient  that  has  shown 
within  thirty  years  such  marvelous  capacities  of 
adaptation  and  improvement.  If  she  thus  go  on 
to  "prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  to  that  which  is 
good,"  who  knows  but  her  brilliant  rising  to  great 
power  and  influence  among  the  nations  may  mark 
the  beginning  of  world-wide  reforms?  Her  tre- 
mendous, bloody  battles  should  say  to  all  man- 
kind: "Let  us  have  no  more  of  this.  Let  us 
establish  great,  trustworthy  tribunals  of  arbitra- 


94  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

tion,  and  settle  our  rights  and  differences  there. 
Let  us  beat  our  swords  into  plowshares  and  our 
spears  into  pruning-hooks."  Such  triumphs  of 
peace  and  righteousness  might  well  bring  to  pass 
the  old  Shinto  ideal  of  a  code  of  morals  so  deeply 
written  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  of  rulers  that 
they  spontaneously  do  that  which  is  obviously  right. 
For  is  not  this  lofty  ideal  in  accord  with  that  of 
the  Hebrew  prophet  who  descried  a  coming  golden 
age  when  "they  should  teach  no  more  every  man 
his  neighbor,  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying, 
Know  the  Lord ;  for  they  shall  all  know  the  Lord, 
from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest"  (Jer. 
31:34)? 

On  the  assumption  that  the  highest  form  of 
religion  must  needs  respond  to  the  highest  moral 
test,  the  editor  of  The  Hiblert  Journal^  propounds 
the  following  startling  question,  "How  would  the 
general  status  of  Christianity  be  affected  by  the 
appearance  in  the  world  of  a  religion  which  should 
stand  the  test  better  than  herself?"  That  is,  a 
religion  or  people  that  should  present  an  exhibition 
of  moral  excellence  superior  to  that  seen  among  the 


JVol..  iv,    1906,   pp.   19-41. 


REBUKE  OF  "CHRISTIAN  POWERS."  95 

Christian  nations.  Our  own  belief  is  that  such 
an  exhibition  of  moral  excellence  in  a  non-Chris- 
tian people  would  set  the  Christian  searching  his 
own  standards  of  morality.  It  may  be  that  Japan 
in  her  late  exhibitions  of  ability  in  political 
diplomacy,  and  her  sacrifice  and  waiving  of  cer- 
tain rightful  claims  to  indemnity,  and  the  exalt- 
ing of  the  right  and  the  truth  above  narrow,  self- 
ish interests,  has  put  to  shame  the  "Christian 
Powers"  of  Europe,  whose  conspicuous  qualities 
have  been  baneful  statecraft,  jealousy  of  rivals,  and 
greed  to  enlarge  their  territory  by  crushing  feebler 
States,  and  grinding  down  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Such  an  exhibit  would  not  prove  the  in- 
feriority of  Christian  ethics,  but  the  failure  of  the 
so-called  Christian  Powers  to  honor  and  exemplify 
the  ethics  of  our  gospel.  The  plain  fact  in  this 
matter  is,  as  thoughtful  men  must  everywhere  ac- 
knowledge, that  the  aggressive  "Christian  Powers" 
have  enlarged  their  empire  at  the  expense  of 
weaker  States  and,  by  taking  advantage  of  their 
day  of  weakness  and  adversity,  have  by  such  am- 
bitious procedures  belied  and  violated  the  funda- 
mental commandments  of  the  religion  which  they 
profess. 


96  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

We  Americans  have  dreamed  and  sometimes 
boasted  that  our  great  Republic  of  freedom  has 
proven  a  mighty  evangel  of  human  liberty  and 
rights.  It  is  a  luminous  star  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude, and  it  arose  in  the  Western  hemisphere. 
But  this  brilliant  star  of  the  West  has  cast  its 
helpful. beams  across  the  Pacific  Ocean  upon  the 
blooming  rice-fields  of  Japan.  It  may  be  that 
those  grandchildren  of  the  sun-goddess  may  by 
their  skill  and  prowess  flash  upon  the  world  a  light 
so  strong  as  to  eclipse  to  some  extent  our  own, 
and  be  so  self-evidently  excellent  that  all  mankind 
will  bid  it  welcome.  It  may  or  may  not  be  that 
all  will  acknowledge  the  radiant  Evangel  as  "the 
root  and  the  offspring  of  David."  With  the  Jap- 
anese it  may  for  long  be  insisted  that  this  new 
Light  is  the  root  and  offspring  of  the  Mikado  and 
the  Goddess  of  the  Dawn.  But  we  can  waive  that 
point  and  all  of  us  cry  out,  Let  the  true  Light 
come.  If  it  make  for  righteousness  and  love  and 
the  peace  of  the  world,  we  shall  hail  its  rising  in 
the  far  East  as  the  light  of  "the  bright,  the  Morn- 
ing Star;"  for  there  is  no  other  that  can  ulti- 
mately prove  itself  to  be  "the  true  Light  that  light- 
eth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world." 


SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  97 

SELECT  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

ASTOX,  W.   G.     Shinto,  The  Way  of  the  Gods. 
London,  11)05. 

BRINKLEY,  F.     Japan  and  China.     12  volumes. 
London,  1903. 

CHAMBERLAIN,  B.  H.     Things  Japanese.     Lon- 
don, 1902. 

DYER,  HEXRY.     Dai  Xippon.     A  Study  in  Xa- 
tional  Evolution.    London,  1904. 

GRIFFIS,  WILLIAM  ELLIOT.     The  Mikado's  Em- 
pire.    Xew  York,  1876. 

Religions  of  Japan,  from  the  Dawn  of  History 
to  the  Era  of  Meiji.     New  York,  1895. 

GULICK,  SIDXEY  L.     Evolution  of  the  Japanese, 
Social  and  Psychic.    Chicago,  1903. 

HEARX,  LAFCADIO.     Japan.     An  Attempt  at  In- 
terpretation.    Xew  York,  1904. 

Ko-Ji-Ki,  or  Records  of  Ancient  Matters.    Trans- 
lated by  Basil  H.  Chamberlain. 
Published  as  a  Supplement  to  Vol.  X  of  the 
Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan. 
Yokohama,  1883. 

LOWELL,  PERCIVAL.     The  Soul  of  the  Far  East. 
Boston,  1S9G. 
7 


98  THE  SHINTO  CULT. 

MACLAY,  ARTHUR  C.  A  Budget  of  Letters  from 
Japan.  Reminiscences  of  "Work  and  Travel  in 
Japan.  New  York,  1886. 

NIHONGI,  Chronicles  of  Japan  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  A.  D.  697.  Translated  from  the 
original  Chinese  and  Japanese  by  W.  G.  Aston. 
2  vols.  London,  1896. 

Published  as  a  Supplement  to  the  Transactions 
and  Proceedings  of  the  Japan  Society,  London. 

REED,  EDWARD  J.  Japan :  Its  History,  Traditions, 
and  Religion.  London,  1880. 

Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan. 
From  1872  to  the  present  time. 

Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  Japan  So- 
ciety, London.  From  1892  to  the  present  time. 
These  separate  series  of  volumes  of  Transac- 
tions of  Japanese  Societies,  running  through 
many  years,  are  an  invaluable  repository  of 
information  on  the  history,  customs,  religion, 
and  literature  of  Japan. 


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